Untitled
by wordsonscreen
Summary: Gyoro and Ururun's possession of Ashton is starting to have unexpected consequences. Fortunately, they've finally found a way to separate themselves. Unfortunately, it's dangerous and they require the assistance of their friends to complete it.
1. Prologue

General Notes: This is writing is based a few years after the old version of SO2, so don't expect to see any of new characters, events, et cetera that might be found in SO:SE. As far as endings are concerned, assume the Rena/Claude ending where they stayed in Arlia. References to other paired endings may occur as well, but perhaps not in the expected manner.

Characters: Ashton and Gyoro and Ururun, Bowman, Celine, Claude, Dias, Precis, and Rena. Mentions and/or appearances of other characters be they minor or major will most likely occur.

Disclaimer: Square-Enix owns the characters and franchise, I'm just playing with them to keep myself in shape for required creative writing classes.

_**Prologue**_

It was well past nightfall in Linga when he closed up for the day. Dimmed as they were, the lights inside Bowman Jean's pharmacy still cast an odd glow onto the dusty street as the proprietor closed the door behind himself; the tinny toll of the small bell attached to the other side sounding into the night. Fallen leaves scratched an odd rhythm on the ground as they shivered and danced to the tempo of a sudden gust of wind before settling once more.

The man smiled to himself as he turned, his brown eyes catching what little light there was in the darkness and adjusting slowly; though he did not bother to wait for them. His shoes crushed brittle leaves underfoot as he walked to the side of the building, then softly slapped against hard stone as he ascended steps that he knew by heart. Turning the knob on the door expertly in the darkness, he entered the apartment in silence and stood for a moment, passing a hand over his short, dark hair in a token effort to look presentable.

"Mmm. Bowman?" Nineh called sleepily from her new favorite resting place on the couch.

Crossing the distance between the door and the back of the couch, Bowman leaned over, slid a calloused finger gently down her cheek and made eye contact with his wife before allowing both his gaze and hand to drop to her belly. Lightly touching the hidden roundness there, he smiled and looked back to her eyes. "Want me to fix you anything? In the mood for any bizarre concoctions tonight?"

"For a moment I thought some strange man had come inside wearing your skin," she murmured, lightly slapping his arm. "I'll do it. You know I don't trust you in the kitchen."

/////

On the other side of town, the streets faintly echoed with a strained, high-pitched whine that came into existence abruptly and died in the same manner a few seconds later. Quick to replace it, heated voices emerged from an open garage door as strange shadows flowed out into the dirt street from the lighted interior.

Precis Neumann grunted in frustration and pulled the safety goggles from her face, lowering them to her chest before settling her hands on her hips. "It's no good, Dad. This thing isn't gonna work."

"We just have to fix the wiring," Graft insisted resolutely from behind their current project.

"No, we don't need to fix the wiring!" The teenager gesticulated wildly, green eyes flashing as her hands rose to stab and swipe erratically at the air before her to emphasis her point. "The wiring's fine, it's the battery that's the problem. It's putting out way to much power. Stop messing around with the wiring and listen to me for once!"

"Whose invention is this?!" he bellowed, one of his hands flashing out from the side of the machine before the rest of him came into view. "It's mine! It's my invention, I know how much energy is needed to run it!"

"Oh, yeah. So that's why it's blown up three times in the past week, huh? It just has to be the wiring; the same wiring that's melted every time no matter how much we switch it all around! It can't possibly be anything else!"

"Precis, if you're not going to help fix this then get out of the garage! I don't need you here distracting me with all of you amateur theories."

"Excuse me? Amateur theories? Graaaah! Y'know what? Fine. Just fine. C'mere, Bobot." Huffing loudly, she bent down and grabbed the blue contraption from the ground as it approached her in it's usual quirky manner. Her thick, strawberry blonde hair fell with her movements and she swiped it violently back to it's proper place as she thundered out of the garage. "I'm never helping you with that or any other project again! Have fun scrapping all that melted plastic off!"

"I won't have to scrap any plastic off! It's not the damn battery!" Graft yelled after her as she slammed the door behind her. He calmed himself slowly, listening to the sound of the elevator ascending before he turned a glare upon his project, muttering to himself. "....Maybe it is the damn battery."

/////

The afternoon sun shone down on Mars Village weakly, hidden behind clouds that drifted lazily through the sky. Celine Jules frowned as she looked out through her window, trying to enjoy the baby rabbit risotto that her mother had made for her in celebration of her annual homecoming and failing horribly. They laid on her pillow as they always did; the marriage proposals that her parents had kept for her to look over, tucked safely away in their now traditional enclosure.

Setting her meal down in defeat, she reached for the burgundy velvet sack only to freeze in place and blink at the distinct lack of heft she found there. Dropping it on the bed unceremoniously as she came back to herself, she frowned in disbelief and reached hesitantly for the bag again before recoiling to walk towards the window again. "How dreadful," she whispered. "They must be playing a trick on me."

Turning to the mirror, she studied her face slowly and methodically from every angle possible. Growing confident in her assertion when she detected no flaws--her face was perfect; she looked much too young to be a woman in her mid-twenties, she told herself--Celine leaned back smiling at her reflection. She started to turn then, but something on her neck caught her eye and she rushed to face the mirror again.

Once more she found no flaws, but now she was pushed on by concern that was slowly edging itself to panic. Disrobing herself as she went, she studied the tone of her arms, the curves and perk and firmness of her breasts, the flatness of her stomach, and on and on as she traveled lower, going even so far as to check the soles of her feet and each toe in turn before she gave up, huffing at herself in annoyance.

"This is ridiculous," she quietly declared to herself and the room itself. Smoothing her wavy, periwinkle hair, she lifted her gaze to the ceiling for a moment before allowing it to drop again. Still calming herself, she focused on her old traveling outfit; the one that she hadn't worn since returning from Energy Nede. "I look exactly the same as I did then. Nothing has changed about me at all."

/////

Claude Kenni exhaled forcefully as he swiped a forearm across his forehead to wipe away the copious amount of sweat that had gathered there despite his headband and the cool, insistent breeze that wound itself through Arlia. Smiling gently, he looked at the young woman beside him, eyes searching her features and savoring the expression he found there.

"Oh, Claude," Rena Lanford whispered, weaving her arm around his and pulling herself tightly to his side. "It's so beautiful. Our house."

"It's really pulling together, isn't it? Once Bossman and the rest of us finish the roof, it's on to the inside. We'll have it finished before the first month of winter's over."

Bouncing slightly in her excitement, she gave him a teasing look as her smile widened. "And I'll have plenty of time to go furniture shopping with Mother and Celine in Cross. Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"You know I'm trying to save up all my energy for the first of spring," Claude wiggled his eyebrows playfully for a moment, his thoughts turning serious as he waited for her blush to fade. "And...If there's enough time--if the weather's not too bad--I think I might go looking for Ashton. If none of the others have heard from him by then."

"Do you think he's still in El? Maybe we can ask Dias. I wonder if he would mind traveling there again to tell him the news and bring him back; he's so good at tracking people, he'd definitely find him."

"You know I'm not big on asking Dias for favors. But if you want to it'd probably--"

"Break's over everybody!" Bossman called from behind, soft groans following in his announcement's wake. "Let's get going, I want this roof done before lunch." His eyes caught Rena's as he passed the couple by, the carpenter slapping Claude on the back as he went. "Sorry, Rena. I'll get this one back to you as soon as I can."

"You know I don't mind. So long as he's all in one piece when you're done," she called after him as she leaned up to give Claude a kiss and disentangled her arm from his.

/////

If it were the height of summer, Dias Flac would have awoken shortly after dawn broke. Yet winter is fast approaching; only a matter of days remain before its presence is official, and as such it is dark and cold when he rouses himself from slumber and goes about the business of closing camp.

His body moves from nothing more than muscle memory as he completes each task with ease, his mind focused inward. It was almost time for him to keep not one, but two of his rare promises. Attained by Rena of course; she was the only person alive that could talk him into such a commitment against his own will. He was expected in Arlia in less than a week for a visit that she had managed to wring from him when they had last crossed paths. Then, sometime in the closing days of winter, he would need to return again to prepare to give his 'little sister' away.

To Claude.

During their marriage ceremony.

He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.

/////

If one were to ask Ashton Anchors what season--let alone what time -- it was, the response would have been one of energetic apology. Stuttered words accompanied by the embarrassed flushing of cheeks and nervous movements of both eyes and hands would have meet the inquisitor in full force. He would sincerely hope to be forgiven, it's just that....Well, he hasn't been outside in a very, very long time. Long enough that neither he or the dragons he is fused with would be able to provide such information.

They've been here. Inside this hidden temple, its halls and chambers carved into the interior of a massive mountain that stands to the east of Eluria Tower. A sacred place that few could visit before the Sorcery Globe fell; these halls had grown accustomed to the constant presence of barely a dozen maintainers before being abandoned in the confusion that followed disaster's arrival.

More specifically, the three of them have found themselves spending most of their time inside the temple's massive library. Lit by dozens upon dozens of oil lamps secured to stone walls and ceiling, their small flames cast warm, flickering light that bathes the room in calm shades of yellow and orange. Heavy and old, rows of thick wood bookcases filled with tomes both ancient and recent stand in patterns demanded by the odd geography of the chamber itself. They create a large, open diamond, repeating on itself again and again, each row shorter than the last until only three cases remain on each of the four sides. This interior diamond holds a handful of well-worn wooden chairs and a lone stone table; long and wide and heavy and surprisingly well-sculpted and smooth.

Ashton lifted his head from where it had rested on folded arms and slowly stood from the table, Gyoro and Ururun swaying with his movements. He turned and began to walk purposefully toward the exit, his left hand tucking a thick book bound in worn black leather inside his robe as he went. If anyone who knew him well had seen him at that moment, they may have questioned the paleness of his skin, the odd confidence in his gait, the length that he had allowed his hair to grow out, or perhaps the uncharacteristically determined way in which his mouth was set.

Should they desire a quick answer, however, they would demand to know why his green eyes now glowed a pale, silvery blue.

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Author's Notes: This story is a rewrite and expansion of another one that I wrote many, many years ago at the request of a friend. I'm rewriting it now both for practice and because I found the old rough draft and felt the need to clean it up and make it less...terrible. The original story contained Ashton/Celine romance. At this point, I don't know if it will remain, but Celine will still play a large role even if it doesn't. It largely depends on the characters and whether or not I feel like I can make a relationship seem organic enough that I don't hate it.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter Summary: Late at night, an odd trio arrive in Mars. Celine plays at being a mother hen and later makes a couple of calls.

Disclaimer: Square-Enix owns the characters and the franchise, I'm just playing in their sandbox.

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Being the refined woman that she is, Celine knows that disturbing another person during the night is at the very height of rudeness. Unfortunately, she also knows that emergencies do happen occasionally, even in her sleepy hometown. It is this knowledge that kept her temper in check as she rushed to the front door in hopes of sparing her parents a stressful awakening, then rekindled it once she spied the originator of the knocking from the living-room windows.

"Ashton. _Darling._" The words, tinged ever so lightly with acid, escaped from her as she wrenched the door open with more force than was strictly necessary and turned her attention to his bowed head. "I know that you know better than to call on a lady so-"

"He says that we should apologize for disturbing you. We apologize." The vapor of his breath danced lazily between them as the dragons on his back swayed to and fro. Head tilting upward, tired eyes slowly opened to reveal mildly glowing yellow orbs as one hand withdrew from his robe to present a book to her in the darkness. "We also request your assistance."

Taken aback and ignoring the proffered book, she motioned him--them--inside, pulling the robe about her tighter still out of both deference to the cold and their presence as she studied both the dragons and the man they was attached to. "As much as I delight in the company of you and your brother, Gyoro, I'd like to talk to Ashton if it's not too much of a bother."

"We will depart from his mind as much as we are able once you take this tome from our possession."

Celine laid her fingers on the book in Ashton's hands, meeting his eyes as she turned the words he had used over in her mind before finally removing it from his relaxed grasp. "Did something happen to cause this?"

Gyoro closed Ashton's eyes and a low, gentle growl escaped the throat of the red dragon on his back, apparently not caring to reply in the other manner readily available to him. Celine shifted her weight, studying the man before her, the seconds seeming to drag slowly by before his eyes drifted open again, even tireder than before, but now displaying their natural color. He swayed on his feet, seemingly unsteady, and she dropped the book, reaching out to lend support and provide balance even as she winced at the chill she detected under the many layers he wore.

"You better not fall, Darling. I don't think there's enough strength in me to catch you. Do you need to lie down?"

"S-sorry, Celine. I just....No, I can't sleep yet. I want to, but I can't."

"You're positively hopeless, you know that? Will you at least sit for me?"

He laughed weakly at the teasing and shook his head in answer to the question as the dragons on his back started to droop visibly. " Um. You know how I told you a little after we reached Nede that we could hear each other think and talk together in our heads when we wanted to? That I didn't just somehow understand what they said out loud anymore?"

"Yes, Darling, I do." Celine began pulling him along gently towards the staircase, mindful of her sleeping parents.

"W-well...Where are we going?"

"Upstairs." Celine fought back a laugh as his eyes widened and he blushed faintly, pale mouth working silently. "I'd rather not wake my parents with all this talk, and the guest room is upstairs, remember? Now hush and tell me the rest."

"Oh, uh, um...I guess it was about six months ago--no, it was more than that, almost a year I think, or maybe longer--we started feeling what the others felt. Like they'd get into a fight and we'd all feel the biting, or if I scratched one of them under their jaw it'd feel like someone was scratching all of us there and--y-you--didn't you say that we were going to the guest room?"

"Ashton, Darling. Does it look to you like the guest room has a door?"

"Well, no, but-"

"And didn't I tell you that I'd rather not wake my parents?"

"Yes, yes you did. You're a wonderful daughter, Celine, you really, truly are I just--I just don't think I'm going to be very comfortable in there."

She smiled perversely as she moved in front of him to take both his hands in hers, leading him through the open doorway. "No worries, I'll make sure you feel very at home."

"....You're picking on me."

"Of course I am, Darling. I'm ever so sorry for it, but old habits are hard to break. You're ever so easy to wind up; how could a girl resist? Now come on, finish the rest. I need to know as much as possible before I talk to the Elder in the morning."

"Okay," Ashton rubbed the back of his head, sighed slowly and took a long breath as Celine moved away to sit on her bed after shutting the door behind them. "So we started..sharing sensations. Then we didn't even have to think at each other anymore; it was just there all the time. All of it; every thought any of us ever had. A little while after that, they....They started taking me over without meaning too. We'd go to sleep as ourselves, but when we woke up Gyoro or Ururun would be in control sometimes, but I could still see and hear and..everything. I was still there and I knew what was happening and what they did; I didn't black out like I did before. We can fix it; it takes a lot of concentration, but we can, and now it's happening more and more often and....And that's pretty much it."

"I don't..." Celine sighed softly, lowering her gaze to the hands in her lap as she took the flood of information in, her mind working furiously. "I don't believe I've ever heard of such a thing occurring, Darling. But then...people who become possessed by demons tend to be rid of them fairly quickly, one way or another. The three of you have been together for so long, and Gyoro and Ururun are rather powerful...."

"That's what we're thinking," Ashton nodded. He scanned her lap, the areas beside her on the bed and the floor before shrugging to himself faintly and looking back to her. "The book that we gave you--wherever it went--it's got an old Elurian ritual in it. It's...not quite what we were looking for, but it'll separate us and Gyoro and Ururun won't die from it. It's...complex. Very intricate. I'm going to need more crest tattoos for one thing." Gyoro nudged the back of his head roughly after a moment of silence descended, and Ururun curled his long neck around to stare at him accusingly.

"And what is it that you aren't telling me?" She raised an eyebrow at him as she observed the dragons' behavior.

"...They'll be fine. It's just that, well...It's dangerous."

"'Dangerous' as in you'll be weak afterwards or 'dangerous' as in you might die?"

Ashton closed his eyes and turned his head away, his mouth working slowly and silently before whispering, "I...As in I might die."

"From the heraldry?" Her forehead found it's way to her waiting hands as she felt a tension headache approach.

"No, not the magics. They're pretty passive, apparently. Mostly for these two. I....I have to...cut myself and bleed out. Quite a bit."

Long moments passed before Celine was able to look at the heraldic swordsman that stood before her again. "I'm going to call Rena and Bowman. At the very least, we're going to come with you." She shook her head and sighed as she stood, suddenly looking just as tired as he did. "I swear, Ashton, Darling, I have no idea how you find yourself in these situations. Bad luck be damned."

"Can you believe that it actually seems to be improving lately?"

"Please don't joke, Darling. I think the time for it has passed." She studied him intently, cataloging every aspect of his appearance before speaking again. "I'm sure that I don't want to know, but when was the last time you slept, bathed, or ate?"

"A while ago, on the boat from El. It rained the other night while I was traveling."

"You saw the bathroom on the way in, yes? Take a bath and leave your clothes and armor by the door, I'll put some of my father's for you there and put something on for you to eat once you're done. I'll even cut your hair for you if you'd like."

He blinked owlishly at her. "You don't have to do all that."

"Just hush and let me coddle you for a bit. I don't give in to the temptation very often."

/////

"Hello?...Hello? Um...Is anyone there?"

Celine shut her father's dresser quietly before she exited the bedroom and pulled the door closed behind her gently, juggling the clothing in her arms as she moved about, her head and neck squeezed together at an odd angle. "Hello there, Rena, Darling. I'm so sorry for calling you so late at night, but I'm in a bit of a situation. I do hope that you understand."

"Oh, it's okay Celine, it's only nine o'clock here. What's....Oh, Claude says 'hi,' and I'm sure Dias does too."

"You be sure to give those strapping men of yours kisses on the cheek for me, will you? Truth be told, Darling, I'm afraid this situation I'm calling about is in regard to our dear Mr. Anchors."

"Ashton? Is he okay?" A brief scuffling sound came over the phone followed closely by muffled, slightly distorted voices. "Is he there with you? Is he hurt?"

"He showed up on my doorstep less than half an hour ago, I suppose. Physically he's...he's not hurt but he is in a spot of trouble that desperately requires your assistance." She winced at the strained feeling in her neck and the way Rena was obviously parroting her words to Claude on the other end of the line. Taking a weary breath, she bent down to place the clean clothes beside the bathroom door and regarded Ashton's dirty clothing and armor thoughtfully. "I suppose that might be the wrong way to put it; you don't need to fly over right this instant but-"

"Celine, what's going on?"

"Claude!...Sorry Celine."

"It's alright, Darling. I'm having a bit of difficulty putting this into words, I'm afraid. He's here and safe; tired and cold and hungry and dirty, but I'm watching him; he'll be fine until you arrive." She lifted his heavy robe to the light of the hallway and peered through the material, frowning. "I'm even going to be replacing his clothing while I'm at it, apparently.... Oh, I must apologize again, my train of thought has completely gotten away from me."

"Anyway," she continued as she gathered his old clothing and headed downstairs. "He showed up at my door completely unannounced. I got him inside and he told me that he and the dragons are having some very disturbing difficulties. They've managed to find a way to separate themselves, but Ashton has to bleed himself to near-death apparently for it to work."

"Oh, Tria, that's horrible! But, Celine...my powers don't create new blood, they just heal wounds. I don't know if I can-"

"It's fine, Darling. I'm going to call Bowman as well and get him over here for that." She entered the kitchen and dropped the old clothing--robe, pants, boots, all of it--into the trash before turning to the icebox and examining the foodstuffs inside. "I've heard that the doctors in Linga have come up with a way to allow a person to give a bit of their blood to another. Knowing him, he can get whatever is needed to do just that and be here in a few days. It will all work out."

"Really? That's amazing. Okay, we'll be there as soon as possible. Or should we meet you in the Salva Drift?"

Celine removed the top from a large pot and examined the contents, discovering the stew that her mother had served earlier in the day. "I don't know. I didn't think to ask. He brought a book with him, but I haven't looked through it yet. Caution is never a bad thing, though, so you may want to pack yourselves well and come here just in case. We'll have to wait on Bowman as it is, unfortunately."

"We'll do that, then. Do you want me to call the others for you? You have to be busy enough as it is already."

"Oh, it's quite alright, you don't need to bother yourself with all that," she grunted lightly, transferring the pot to the top of the stove and turned back to the icebox, removing the bag of rolls that had sat beside it. "I was going to ask Bowman's opinion on that when I talked to him; I'm not sure if we need to drag our entire motley lot into this. And if you'll permit me to honest; I have to admit that I'm not sure that we have enough time to wait on the others to drag themselves from whatever they're involved in."

"Well....If you're sure."

"I'm sure, Darling. You all have enough on your hands with packing and traveling. I can handle contacting the others, it's no trouble at all."

Hanging up after exchanging farewells with Rena, she stared at the meal she was building as she turned the stove on, vaguely wondering if it was enough. The man upstairs had a tendency to eat enough--quite literally--for three people, if her memory served her correctly. Or maybe that was Dias. She certainly hoped it was Dias. She didn't know what would happen if she actually had to cook. Maybe she could cut up a few pieces of fruit if he was still hungry afterwards. At least that wouldn't lead to a fire.

Redialing the phone, she found herself absently hoping that she had gotten confused. Maybe it was Ashton that picked at his food like a bird and not Noel. Maybe the Nedian's overwhelming love of animals had tainted her perceptions and memories of her former traveling companions' habits. She had a very strong feeling that she was confusing Dias with Ashton or Noel with Dias or Ashton with-

"Hmmmp. Whedeyoowaan?"

_Oh, thank Tria_. "Bowman, Darling! How are you this lovely morning?"

"Mmph. Who i' it?"

"Bowman Jean. Do not tell me that you don't recognize the voice of the loveliest ex-fiancée you ever had."

"Oh. Hey there, Jennifer."

"_Bowman_!"

"Alright, alright. Hi, Celine. So.... Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Late enough that I don't feel any guilt whatsoever about waking you up."

"Oh. Great." A prolonged grunt sounded over the line. "Is this the anniversary of the day you called our engagement off, or what? 'Cause if it is, I've got to break it to you that my heart has finally mended itself back together."

She absently studied the nails on one of her hands. "You know, I can't even remember what day that was," she lied.

"Me either," so did he. "So, I take it this isn't a social call."

"Unfortunately, no. Ashton's in need of your assistance. He's found a way to get rid of the dragons, but the poor dear has to cut himself to do so."

"...He has to exsanguinate himself? What the hell type of exorcism method is this?"

"I don't honestly know. He's so tired that I didn't want to press him too hard and I've yet to look at the book he brought with him."

"You heraldry users are all insane. There's no other way? He can't hold it off and, I dunno, look for another method?"

"His situation with the dragons has become a wee bit too dire for that, I'm afraid," Celine turned quickly to the pot and looked for a spoon, suddenly remembering that she actually needed to stir the stew as it heated; at least occasionally. She also needed a plate to warm the rolls on; they were rather stiff when cold.

"So he's going to need a blood transfusion afterwards. What's his blood type?"

"Blood type? I'm sorry, Darling, but I don't have faintest as to what you're talking about."

"Oh, yeah. That's right. He wouldn't happen to be from the Lacour Continent would he? I don't think I ever caught where he was from."

"I'm fairly certain that he's originally from Eluria, judging from his fighting style and the odd manner he had about him while we were there. Like I said, though, I'm not all that sure."

"Great. He's from the one continent that the university has absolutely no data on. I'll have to pick up a few extra kits. Not that I didn't need them already."

"You can't just bring some along with you?"

"What, blood? Blood doesn't travel well with our current technology. If you could do this thing here in Linga, we might be able to work something out, but anywhere else and it's got to be onsite."

"Should I contact all of the others then?"

"Have you called Rena yet? She'd make sense for this."

"Yes. Claude is with her of course, and Dias is apparently with them at the moment. I'm sure she'll make him tag along, though."

"So that leave Chisato, Noel, Leon, and....Precis," he sighed deeply. "I tested Chisato when she came by to interview the leading researcher for this project; Nedian blood seems wholly incompatible with our own when it comes to transfusions. The same with Fellpools, so Leon's out too. I'll just....grab Precis before I leave town."

"I'm so sorry, Darling."

"Don't apologize to me; apologize to Ashton. Our pool of potential donors is so small that unless he's a universal recipient, we'll probably have to brain some poor slob on the streets and drag him along with us."

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Author's Note: Ashton's from the continent of El in this story. He was never assigned a hometown or native country if I remember correctly, so I'm just plunking him down there for the hell of it.


	3. Chapter 2

Summary: Bowman and Precis set out from Linga together. Meanwhile, Celine deals with nosy locals as Claude, Dias and Rena arrive. Somewhere in between all this, Ashton wears himself out.

Disclaimer: Star Ocean is the property of Square-Enix. I'm making no money from this work. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Author's Note: As a character, I like Precis. Bowman, though....not so much.

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Bowman knew that he was making a disgruntled face as he made his way to the southern edge of town, his medical bag thumping against his side. Still, try as he might, no matter how many odd looks he received from the townsfolk or the students that rushed about between classes, he simply could not remove the expression completely. Even though it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things; he was still reasonably certain that every thirty year old man on the face of Expel would commiserate with him if only they knew of his situation.

He had to travel with Precis Neumann.

For several days.

Alone.

He'd already come to the conclusion that he has to do it; that sacrifices must be made, but still....

Sometimes 'taking one for the team,' truly does suck.

He knew he was getting close without even paying attention by the way the crowd thinned suddenly; by the bizarre, erratic whining noises and abrupt, loud clanks and crashing noises that now echoed through the streets.

Still, he couldn't stop fantasizing about what it would be like if Precis wasn't here; if Opera and Ernest hadn't returned to their home planet. He and Opera could drink together and tell crude jokes and stories while Ernest... studied rocks or something and made sure one of them didn't fall into the campfire with that vaguely amused expression he sometimes wore.

Finally entering the house through the ever-open garage door during a brief lull in the the noise, Bowman raised his hand in greeting to the older man he found there. "Hey, Graft. Mornin'."

"Doctor Bowman!....Precis didn't damage your steps again, did she? I don't know why she insists on hanging out there all the time. I'll-"

"It's okay, she didn't do anything. I do need to speak with her real quick, though."

The man gave him a disbelieving look. "....You actually want to talk to her?"

"With Precis, yeah."

"Are you alright? You're not sick, are you?"

Bowman rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Not that I know of."

"Okay then." Graft turned and took a few steps towards the door to the living room before screaming. "Precis! Precis! You've got a visitor down here! They want to talk to you!"

"What?" Came the equally loud response from somewhere above. Bowman winced and covered his ringing ears.

"Get down here! Doctor Bowman wants to talk to you!"

"Okay, okay!"

Graft turned back to him, looking pleased with himself. "She'll be right down."

"Great. I'm just....I'm going to wait outside."

"Yeah, some fresh air would probably do you some good. You're looking a little pale."

Bowman nodded as he retreated outside, blissfully enjoying the few precious moments of silence there were to be had before Graft got back to work and quick footsteps slapped the ground behind him.

Precis maneuvered herself around Bowman's back so that she could look up at him, Bobot cradled in her arms. "Hey, Doc. What's up?"

"Ashton's gotten himself in trouble. He's in Mars with Celine; we need to go meet up with them there as soon as we can." He decided to toss a little detail out that would hopefully pique a certain little obsession he remembered her having. Maybe it would make her agree more readily and make this conversation as short as possible. "Claude's going to be there."

She made a face at him at the mention of Claude, but apparently decided to ignore it. "What type of trouble?"

"I didn't get the full story. Apparently the dragons are doing something to him that we really don't want them to be doing, though. The only way they've found to separate them will require blood transfusions afterwards."

She looked down quickly in thought before looking back up at him and gesturing the best that she could with Bobot in her arms. "Okay. So we need to leave now, right?"

"Pretty much. Get yourself packed, I'll meet you by the inn."

Sighing to himself a short while later, Bowman shifted inside his thick winter coat, his backpack and medical bag idly swaying with the movement. He watched the clouds quickly drift across the sky and tried to enjoy the brief moment of calm he had discovered. It didn't last long, of course. Precis was as quick as always; a whirlwind of energy even as she approached the age of twenty, her loud footfalls sounding through the crisp air as the crowd parted before her.

He rolled his head down in her direction as the pounding slowed and grew quiet, lifting an eyebrow at her lack of baggage of any sort. The ever present backpack didn't count. Especially when he had a sneaking suspicion that its fibers had woven themselves into her skin sometime during their travels. "You know it's going to take at least a day and a half to travel to Hilton, right? It's not like either of us are fond enough of animals to call a bunny."

"Whaaat? You think that we're actually going to walk all the way to Hilton?" Precis smiled as she shifted Bobot to one arm and struck a pose, her free hand reaching up to thump the helmet she now wore, eyes shining behind her sunglasses. "We'll be there today; faster than we ever could with a bunny. Just leave it to Bobot and me!"

Bowman blinked at her repeatedly, a flat expression on his face. "What are you talking about?"

The teenager graced him with an excited expression and threw the blue what-ever-it-was ahead of them about a dozen feet. Smiling wider still, she dug an odd controlling device from one of her pockets and gave Bowman a look that said 'watch this!'--the same one that he always translated as 'I'm probably an axe murderer!'--as she pressed the button.

Bobot froze from the position it had been in as it attempted to balance itself before standing ram-rod straight; a cacophony of mechanical clangs, bangs, clanks, and plinks issuing from somewhere deep inside it. The townspeople--obviously much more intelligent than himself, Bowman suddenly realized--ran from the area in borderline panic as Precis cheered her invention on and Bobot began to shudder violently.

/////

Celine examined the fabric in her hands critically as she went over the specifics of the design that she wanted for Ashton's new--old--robe with the village seamstress. "I'm afraid that the measurements I gave you might be off a bit, Darling. You might want to add about 2 inches or so to the back, shoulder, and chest just to be safe. I'm sure that he wouldn't mind a looser fit and we can always make adjustments if it comes to that."

The older woman glanced up at her through her thick glasses curiously before looking back down to the the shirt she was working on. "I've never seen you so indecisive about clothing before. Were you even able to measure this man before you came over here?"

"Not correctly, no. I didn't have the heart to wake him up. I dug his old clothing out of the trash this morning and measured those instead. I would have brought fabric samples, but it's all so threadbare, torn, and faded that I doubt it would be much help."

"Is he one of your old traveling companions? The one with the dragons on his back?"

"Yes, that's the one," Celine sniffed and slid two of the fabric samples over the table to the other woman. "I'd like the belt sash and trim in this gold and the cape in this lovely shade you have here. You wouldn't mind handing me a few samples of your heavier materials, would you?"

The seamstress gestured lightly to the wall behind her and pulled her chair forward as Celine rose to look at the fabrics. "I think I saw him wandering around the village once and spoke to him for a bit. He's quite tall and good looking if memory serves me. A very nice young man; quite nice, if a little bit shy and awkward and naïve, considering his age."

"Yes, I think you've managed to describe him fairly well, considering that you've only met him once. Several years ago."

"Celine-"

She flipped through the fabric roughly, a stern expression on her face as she refused to look at the other woman, her voice tight. "Rose, Darling. I'd appreciate it very much if you stopped what you are doing right this instant."

"Oh, Celine. You have this entire village worried about you. If you'd only-"

"_Rose!_"

/////

In the morning light, Rena's slender form moved gracefully despite the many layers of clothing she wore and the chill that incessantly nipped at her exposed cheeks. Though she was in fact running, the young woman seemed to skip more than anything; the heavy satchel she carried bouncing rhythmically against her thigh. Stopping suddenly at the top of a rolling hill far outside the village of Arlia, she turned and watched the two men behind her make their way forward for a few minutes before calling out to the surrounding fields. "Hey, bunny!"

Claude smiled softly and continued to make his way to Rena as he adjusted the two bags he carried-- one in one hand, another over his shoulder--and made his way up the sloping incline of the hill. He started slightly as Dias passed by him despite being similarly encumbered, and he increased his speed to keep pace with the other man.

Dias shrugged the bags he carried to the ground as he came to a stop beside Rena and surveyed the landscape, on guard as was his habit while traveling. He didn't join her in her calls, sensing that adding his voice would sooner drive their transportation away rather than towards them.

"Dias," Rena nudged him gently before shouting merrily once again, Claude's voice mingling with hers as they called together.

"Come here bunny," Dias joined in on the next chorus, barely moving his lips; his voice far too quiet to be heard beyond a few feet. He ignored the quick look that Claude shot him. Instead, he allowed his eyes to widen ever so slightly in soft surprise as the light thudding of a very, very large bunny's approach rumbled in the distance.

"We did it!" Rena rejoiced, almost dancing in place. "Good boy, bunny! Come here!"

/////

_Ashton,_

_ I hope you don't mind, but Father's clothes don't seem to fit you very well, so I bought you a few things to wear until you're well rested enough to go shopping on your own. I've left a few books on the dresser in case you feel like reading to pass the time. Please relax and enjoy yourself. I'll be home around three._

_-Celine_

_P.S.- Don't even think about paying me back. Don't hide any money in my room or around the house for me to find later, either. I won't accept a single fol._

Ashton read the postscript twice more before he sighed and laid it back on the nightstand. Frowning lightly, he then considered the bags and boxes that rested on the floor a few feet away from the bed. _Am I really that predictable?_ he wondered idly to himself as he stood and ran a hand through his now somewhat shorter hair.

Gyoro answered first, his thoughts and emotions snapping like a bowstring. _Yes. _

_Only if one were to know you well enough,_ Ururun hedged.

_I wonder where the scissors went to. Unless the shirts she got are buttoned, but I'd--_ Ashton froze for a second, mid-kneel as he realized where his thoughts were leading. _She'd kill me if I did that!_

_Hnnn. _Gyoro sent; a short buzzing of ethereal thoughts and emotions so complex and foreign that Ashton couldn't understand them without dedicating a large portion of his attention to the task. Which, he communicated silently through their link, wasn't something that he felt inclined to do at the moment.

_We have done worse things to her and she has never attempted to kill either of us,_ Ururun informed thoughtfully, a little surprised and confused by the notion.

_Hnnn._

_Gyoro, stop that. It's not the same, Ururun. You're demons. We're... _he trailed off, selecting a pair of thick, black pants and lightly tossing them on the bed behind them.

_?_

_What is it?_

_Nothing. Never mind._

_I am curious. _

_As am I. _Both dragons curled around their host to try to make eye contact with him.

_You're always curious._

_Tell us what you meant._

Ashton ignored them and stared in disbelief at the sweaters and shirts as he examined them._There's already holes sewn into these...._

_Is it one of those strange 'fashions' that you told us about? _Ururun looked down to study the garments and realized that they were only holes for he and his brother, even as he and Gyoro both faintly wondered if they would ever understand humans odd need to cover their bodies around one another.

_What? No. Can we not do this today? Please? _The Expellian ignored the dragons' other thoughts, not wanting to get into _that_ again. For the thousandth time.

_Why?_

_Why are we not allowed to ask questions?_

_Because,_ he grimaced, suddenly stubborn.

_That is no answer._

_Because why?_

Ashton threw his hands wide as he gestured, the clothing in his hands waving in the air as he stood once more. _Look, the two of you never really seem to understand what I'm trying to say. I'll explain something and you'll pick something out of that and it just....It's like going in circles over and over. We think too differently. I just don't feel like it right now. And I'm still tired. _The last sentence emerged in a mental tone that bordered a whine.

_Then we should go back to bed. _Ururun nodded to his brother at the thought, his wordless approval passing on to the man he was attached to.

_No, I don't want to do that. You know I don't feel right after sleeping in. _

Ururun and Gyoro both turned to look out the window as they shifted with their host to get dressed. _It is already midday, judging by the position of the sun._

_Hnnn._ The red dragon's eyes squinted in approval at the bright, warm rays that poured from the glass.

_Gyoro, stop it. Both of you, drop it. We're going to go outside to see if we can find Celine._

/////

Bowman managed to stand shakily on the stone floor of the harbor for a few seconds before he submitted to both his dizziness and gravity, collapsing forward on all fours. "Never again. I am never riding in that _thing_ again."

"Hey, it wasn't that bad!" Precis protested as she picked Bobot off the ground. "Bobot was even able to drive over the bridge to the port, we didn't even have to walk through town to get here. I told you that it'd be faster than calling a bunny."

Bowman looked past her as best as he could without moving his head too much. "Tell that to them."

Precis scanned the area around them slowly and took a quick step towards Bowman as she noticed a number of angry townsfolk staring at her from the other side of the bridge in addition to all the startled people on the docks. "Oh, wow."

"Yeah."

"Um, maybe we should go ahead and pay the fee for the next boat to Herlie."

"You think?"

"Hey, you're the one with the money. The only thing I've got is Bobot."

"Well, you-"

"No way. You're crazy if you think I'm going to sell him." She hugged Bobot tightly to her chest.

"Pfft. You couldn't pay anyone in this town to take that thing after the stunt you just pulled." Bowman pushed himself into a sitting position and counted his pulse for a few seconds out of morbid curiosity. "Wait, did you just refer to that thing as 'him?'"

Precis had to forcibly stop herself from beaning him on the head with her invention. Instead, she stared at the man below her and tapped her foot loudly on the ground. It was a good thing Bowman was there, though, because otherwise she might have been wee bit intimidated by all of the glowering townspeople that still hovered on the other side of the bridge.

He looked up and stared back at her. It took him a minute, but once he realized that he was having a staring contest with _Precis_ of all people, he rolled his eyes and dug out his wallet. "Here. Pay the boarding fee and show 'em our passport." He flicked it at her quickly, perhaps even bit violently.

Bowman was torn between cursing, crying, laughing, and pulling his hair out in frustration when she caught it.

/////

Ashton stepped outside and frowned at the shiver that passed from Gyoro and down his spine, his gaze moving about the street on the off chance that Celine was somewhere nearby. Unable to see her from this far edge of the village, he headed westward as the dragons talked amongst themselves somewhere just below his own thoughts as he actively ignored them. His eyes traveled around the streets quickly as he walked, barley pausing on the faces that he saw; vision off and wandering again at the faintest hint that the stranger in question was not either Celine or her parents.

The exact moment that Gyoro and Ururun stopped chatting with one another was beyond his recognition, his attention directed outward as it was. That didn't stop his mind from being wrenched away from the world violently and instantaneously back to them as they abruptly tensed themselves forcefully, so powerfully he _couldn't_ ignore it. Confusion blazed in him for barely a fraction of a second, unable to understand what had caused them to react that way when he himself didn't feel any threats about. They pulled on his chest, back, and shoulder muscles in a manner that made his entire body spasm and tense in sympathy; triggered instinct that was inherent, ingrained and borrowed. He turned swiftly as he felt the dragons ready themselves, felt the weight of their own magics gather in their throats; his hands falling to where his short swords rested, the crests there visible as they bloomed and flared from beneath his skin before he even realized what he was doing.

He found himself staring into the shocked faces of the men and women, the elderly and young that he had just passed; discarded as not Celine. "I-I-I'm sorry, I-I d-didn't, I-I didn't mean to do that. I-I'm so sorry." He virtually jumped from his ready position, his breath and heartbeat uncommonly rapid as the heat of his crests ebbed and the dragons' bodies relaxed and their magics dispersed, leaving him cold and weightless. "I'm so sorry. I don't know why I....Why I did that."

One of the crowd managed a slow nod after long seconds passed and Ashton found himself walking away so quickly it was almost a sprint; his mind blank but racing. He wandered far enough away that no one around seemed to realize what had just happened, but continued on until the urge to hide became overwhelming. Turning suddenly, he followed the side of a nearby house and sat leaning forward from habit in a corner of the building's exterior, feeling....He didn't know what or how he felt anymore.

_...._

_...._

_...._

_Hnnn._

_...What...._

_...Ashton?_

_We did not intend to-_

_**I don't care! I don't care what you intended! What the hell did I just do? Why did you do that? Why did I do that? **_Ashton's head pressed itself hard into his knees, eyes squeezing tightly as he screamed mentally, words booming over the link and shocking the dragons.

_Hnnn._

_They were watching you,_ Ururun said slowly and quietly, disconcerted and...almost frightened.

His head sprang back up out of anger and he gestured violently with one hand. _People always watch me. Why wouldn't they? __**I have the two of you attached to my damned back!**_

_They were not watching you in that way._ Gyoro's long neck curled down lazily to Ashton's front, before sliding up to hug his back again, his head moving up to press softly into the curve of the Expellian's neck.

_It doesn't matter if they were watching me. It doesn't matter how they were watching me. That's not important, _he replied, still tense and suddenly quiet, eyes unfocused, staring forward at nothing as Ururun mimicked his brother, the two of them doing their best to calm him. _We nearly attacked those people for nothing. _

_We know this._

_For nothing_, he repeated, suddenly feeling numb and hollow.

_You stopped us._

_I shouldn't have to stop you. I shouldn't have to stop myself. Not from something like that. _They sat there, the three of them frozen both mentally and physically until Ashton slowly shifted to gently pet each one of the dragons in turn. _You two were right; I should've stayed in bed. I'm so...tired. Let's get back to Celine's._

/////

Rena lead the way once again as the trio departed from their large, furry ride, the village of Mars a short distance away. Claude made his way to her side and took her hand in his as they walked, being sure to stretch his tight legs as they went. Following closely behind, Dias guarded them silently, refusing to relax himself until they were in the village proper.

It didn't take long, but the tall swordsman found himself growing more, not less tense as he took in the behavior of some of the villagers on the street. "Something happened."

Claude nodded, his hand tightening on Rena's as she scanned the village. "Not...violent, though. But something definitely happened to set some people on edge."

"You don't think it was Ashton or the dragons, do you?"

"At the moment, it's not our concern." Dias was suddenly in the lead as he moved to the front door of Celine's house and knocked politely, the other two waiting behind him.

"I guess no one's home."

Dias turned the doorknob and pushed it open slowly when he found it unlocked. He stood for a moment, barring the others' entrance behind him as he searched for something, then relented and walked over the threshold. Feeling and hearing his 'little sister' and her fiancée enter behind him and concluding that the first floor was empty, he made his way upstairs, Rena nipping at his heels, Claude a short distance behind her.

There was no sound to give away the fact that there was someone in the guest room. It was simply the way the air seemed to hang and a presence called, strong and familiar, that lead them to enter one by one and regard what they found there.

Ashton laid quietly in the first bed by the doorway. On his stomach and seeming to barely breath, his head was turned away from the entrance, the covers pushed down to his hips. Curling up over his shoulders, the long necks of the twin dragons on his back circled down lazily until their heads rested in the naked small of his back. They had been calmly playing; lightly and gently nipping the air in each other's direction, but had stopped to regard the newcomers with oddly inscrutable expressions on their faces.

Rena moved forward silently to greet them. Coming to a stop beside the bed, she reached out slowly and frowned to herself when neither of the dragon's moved in to receive affection like they normally did. She almost started to pull her hand away before Gyoro butted his forehead to her palm, gentle and light before pulling back and letting Ururun do the same as Ashton shifted beneath them murmuring something soft and sleepy and indecipherable before stilling again.

Rena stared at the brothers as they returned the favor, the men behind her watching. Silence dragged and stillness reigned before the sound of the front door opening downstairs broke it, the quiet voices of Celine and her parents; Eglas and Labe, floating upstairs placidly.


	4. Chapter 3

Summary: Celine and Ashton have a serious discussion. A long one. Seriously, I didn't know if I'd ever get the two of them to shut up. Bowman and Precis arrive. Blood tests are done and the ritual is explained. Finally.

Author's Note: I have absolutely no idea as to why I've been capitalizing Celine's 'darling's like that. It stops with this chapter, though I might go back and correct the previous ones if I ever get bored enough while waiting for those rare scenes that aren't planned out or spontaneous don't want to come to me. Either way, this is staying for posterity; that was stupid enough that it should be officially recognized.

Disclaimer: Dear Square-Enix, unless you go bankrupt in the near future, I don't think my money would add that much to your coffers. I'm just borrowing your toys, dammit.

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Celine shifted on her side and breathed deeply as she slowly emerged from her doze. The couch, she found, while quite comfortable and pleasant to sit on, was decidedly ill-suited to the pursuit of sleep. She raised herself and stood, tossing her blanket aside and putting her robe back on before silently padding upstairs and slipping in to the guest room. Mindful of the others sleeping a bit farther in, she approached Ashton quietly. Standing over him, she tapped his shoulder lightly but insistently a few times before he made a muffled inquiring noise and opened his eyes, almost turning away and going back to sleep before the weight of the dragons stopped him and Celine's presence registered.

She pressed her thumb and forefinger together and passed them over her lips slowly and gently before pointing further into the room. He lifted himself on his elbows and looked over as the dragons stirred, eyes widening in faint surprise to find Claude and Dias beyond him, occupying the other two beds before looking back to her and nodding. Celine mimed at him, pointing to him and the door before placing one hand over another and curling her hand, pointer and middle finger dancing in her flattened palm before pointing downstairs.

He nodded again and quietly shifted from the bed as Celine exited the room ahead of him. Gyoro and Ururun grumbled, slowly coming into wakefulness and shifting with him as he stood and padded over to the bags again to pick up the shirt he had worn earlier. He felt the presence of eyes on his back as the dragons ducked themselves in the holes and he pulled his head through before looking over. Claude blinked at him from his bed and Ashton nodded at him, smiling and passing his hand before him slowly and shortly, palm facing outward in greeting.

Claude mirrored the smile and the gesture in a much sleepier manner before he yawned widely and turned over, satisfied at the greeting. They'd talk tomorrow, he and Rena had decided that already and by the way the room's visitor had acted just now he had feeling that she was going to get to him first. It was okay though, she was the one that had him show up on her doorstep and called everyone, she had earned first dibs at least once. Besides, now that he had seen his friend up and moving and actually smiling again he might just be able to sleep.

Following Celine's earlier instructions, Ashton made his way downstairs to the living room. Blinking when she wasn't there, he headed to the kitchen and found her sitting at the table there, two glasses of water sitting before her.

"Here you are, darling," she said as she pushed one of the glasses over to him as he sat across from her. "Are you hungry yet? There's leftovers or cold cuts, bread, and fruit in the fridge."

He went to shake his head as he reached for the proffered glass, but stopped and blinked a few times before raising it and taking a sip. "Gyoro and Ururun are. So, I guess so. I'll fix it though, you've done too much already."

"Nonsense." She flipped a hand in the air dismissively at him. She was more than willing to engage in a bit of small talk or debate before discussing a certain event that she had heard about. Celine had long ago discovered that Ashton had a tendency to speak more calmly and freely about certain things when he was eased into them slowly. "As if you wouldn't do the same. Really, stop being so stubborn and accept it."

Ashton nearly rolled his eyes before remembering that she utterly despised the gesture, and that he hadn't been raised that way. Instead, he stood up, taking the glass with him and swept his free hand broadly as he made his way across the kitchen. "I've got to do _something_ to repay all this."

"No." Celine shook her head at the oddly desperate tone his voice had taken on and followed his movements, turning slightly in her chair as she did so. "Now, then. I read the section that you had bookmarked and loaned it to the Elder today." She paused as she watched him open the icebox and remove the bread, cold cuts and a pear. "He's drawing out the crest markings tonight and said that he'd be willing to meet with you tomorrow to start the inking process."

"I, um...I think I'd rather have you do it," he said quickly, his face suddenly hot as he focused himself intently on searching through the cabinets for a plate. "I don't know him and...well, it's not like you're not artistic enough to do it. Besides, it's a big job and I don't want to stay here too long."

She blinked at his back, startled by the admission before frowning at the dragons as they switched their attention from the meal being formed to her and their host, looking between two of them intently and speculatively. They started suddenly and turned back to studying the food, their bodies tensed. "Really, darling. I've never done it before and even if I had, I remember well just how painful and messy the process is and..." she drifted off and directed her attention to the ceiling and sighed, "I'd rather not be there to see you hurting for so long."

The grimace he had on his face from the dragons' antics faded and he quickly shifted his attention back to her as she spoke, his face cooling slowly. He located a plate and removed it, shutting the cabinet door as he went. He was still keeping his face away from Celine's view as he spoke. "We're going to be in pain either way, though. At least this way we can work on it while we travel and save time. Trust me, you don't want to be in El once the sleet and snow starts. It never stops. The sooner it's done the sooner everyone can get back home."

She wanted to protest out of discomfort from both the notion of being the one placing the crests on his body and the intimacy it would force on them. On the other hand, his points were solid enough, and his first statement brought them to the next point she wanted to discuss. "All right then, darling. You win. We'll get to work on it tomorrow," she said as her hands fluttered up and fell back to her lap. "How exactly do Gyoro and Ururun feel about this, by the way? It's going to be such a drastic change for them, and the limitations that are going to be placed on them are rather stiff, I must say."

"Er, well....They're the ones that brought me here. They wouldn't let me take control again after the first time I...tried to turn back," he admitted, finding it hard to do and a bit frightened as to how she would react to that, but at the same time long used to such things. Sometimes he even understood why they did it, was even grateful for it occasionally. Like he was now. He looked over at her finally as the demons nodded at her over his shoulders, unabashed and a little proud. "Do you want to talk to them?"

"No, I trust you. Besides, they seem to agree with you." She smiled tightly, trying to be reassuring and ignore the little pang of indignation that she felt when he explained in such a roundabout fashion that it hadn't really been his choice to come here. She watched him as he turned again, this time to rummage through the drawers for something. A knife, she guessed. "The silverware is in the top third drawer from your left."

"Ah. Thank you." Ashton retrieved a knife and divided the sandwiches he had made several times before he put everything away and retreated back to the table, food and knife balance in one hand, glass of water in the other.

Deciding that they had skated enough around the earlier events of the day, Celine tried to gently push him in the proper direction as he settled himself. "So tell me, how was your day?"

He had been wondering when that was coming. Still, it didn't stop him from pausing in surprise as he raised two slices of sandwich to the dragons, both of them coming forward impatiently around his head to grab them. He took a long draught of water before he spoke. "Not...ah, good. I woke up around noon and decided to go looking for you," he started slowly, feeding the dragons again and slicing of a small slice off the pear, popping it in his mouth and chewing for a while before swallowing as he tried to keep himself collected. "Um....They...they didn't like the way the people on the streets were...looking at me. I didn't really notice anyone looking at me, but I guess they were," he spoke in a near whisper and he paused again, repeating his earlier actions. "I wasn't paying attention. When they tensed up like that I....I guess I got caught up in it all and instinct took over. I turned around and realized what we were doing and....I can't remember, really. I think I apologized but...all I remember is running away and hiding for awhile."

"I thought something like that had happened, but I wanted to check and see if you were all right. The Mars rumor mill is absolutely awful." She knew that from experience. Oh, she knew far, far too well. She wasn't going to tell him why the villagers had most likely been watching him. She didn't want him to faint, have a stroke or a heart attack, or even blush at the moment. The last one seemed impossible to prevent, but still, she had a feeling that he had done enough of that already today. "They'll forget about it by tomorrow, darling."

"You think?"

"Oh,_ I know_." It was true. Everyone would probably be gossiping about the wild orgy that happened in this very house, courtesy of some foolish housewife with a too vivid imagination. Another thing she wouldn't tell him. She was starting to think that she was going to have to lock him in the closet to protect his sanity. "They don't know what's going on, so they might have been shocked, but this is a town of mages." That, and the Elder's wife would tell everyone she could just what was going on, she was quite sure of that. "We're very understanding when it comes to things such as possessions. It's part of our studies, after all. It's rather boring here, though, so everyone talks to pass the time."

He smiled faintly as he chewed another piece of pear, the dragons having finished the sandwiches while she talked. He felt much better, having her to listen to him like this, being as reassuring as she was. He had conversations like this occasionally before with the others, Claude and Rena more often than not, but Celine had a manner to her that had a way of setting him at ease much more quickly than the rest of the group for the most part. "How was your day?" Turnabout was fair play, after all.

Oh, dear. She wasn't going to lie to him, but she just knew that this was going to start another debate about him paying her back. "Well, I went shopping for you, of course. I stopped by the local seamstress afterwards and had her fix your clothing for you and ordered you a new robe." He was giving her that look. It had to be the robe that did it, he _better_ not be upset about the clothing considering he had worn some of them already. She continued casually if a bit slowly, knowing that he wasn't going to interrupt her no matter how much she rambled. "I'm afraid it's not going to be quite the same as your old one. I made some adjustments to the fit given how strained the shoulders looked on it. Your cape will be a slightly darker shade and the fur around the collar won't be completely white. She didn't have the right material for it. It will be a bit heavier and black with a bit of a blue sheen to it as opposed to navy. I took your armor to the metalsmith's to get it all cleaned and polished and such and then I went to the Elder's house. Before I came back home for the day I went grocery shopping, heard about what happened, and bumped into my parents."

The look on his face intensified and he slowly set the pear and knife back on the plate and slid it aside as she spoke. Really, what type of fabrics could be so heavy and hold a sheen to it when dyed so darkly? Expensive ones. He didn't even care if he ever wore it, the fact that she even did this at all was beyond him. She _knows_ him, why did she think that he didn't know what she had done by describing the fabric to him? _He had narrowed it down to four possibilities less than ten-seconds into her description of it_. They were ones that weren't suited for traveling in the slightest. He was almost dreading it now; he was going to feel like an ass firstly just wearing the thing and then again every time it rained or snowed or he tripped over one of those rocks that he swore magically appeared to trip him, no matter how closely he watched the ground. It would probably be the rock first. Or maybe a bird would let loose the second he walked outside wearing it, just to double the indignity of it. And polishing all of the armor. He could have done that himself, it wasn't as though it was difficult. This, this was.... "_Too much_. Celine, this is way, way too much. I'm paying you back, I don't care what you say anymore. I'm doing it."

She knew it. "No, you're not," she objected, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Yes, I am." His eyes narrowed in return, his body stiffening as he leaned on the table, arms crossed on top of it to balance both him and the dragons. He was concentrating so fiercely on her now that he couldn't even feel Gyoro and Ururun's weight pressing down on his spine or hear the way they talked amongst themselves as they shifted their heads down closer to watch them intently. "I don't care how. Money, manual labor, whatever I can do to repay you."

"You could live through this. _That would be rather nice_." She folded her arms tightly to her chest, her right leg crossing over the other and bouncing it over and over, having to do something with all of this nervous energy that had suddenly accumulated.

He flinched, but he was a determined at the moment, and that allowed him to ignore the sting of her words and continue. "I don't care what it is. I'll come back here after all this is done and be your _maid_ for the winter. It doesn't matter, I'll do anything. You've done _too much_."

Celine took note of the way he drew back quickly and felt horrible. Really, arguing with Ashton made her feel like she was kicking a small, starving puppy at times. He won far too many of them due to the looks that he gave her. "I'm sorry, Ashton. I shouldn't have said that." She looked down at her bouncing leg, shook her head at herself and tightened her arms about herself.

"It's okay. I'm sorry too." He let his head fall forward and studied the table intently. He knew she meant it, that she knew that he meant it, even if he was avoiding looking at her at the moment, the same way she was. She didn't really mean that and he knew it, not in the way she said it, anyway. It still shocked him at times that there were so many people now that genuinely cared about him enough to even worry about him, especially considering the lovely way he had introduced himself. Besides, he didn't like fighting with anybody, really. Except the dragons, he didn't really care about that anymore; they were in his head constantly and it wasn't as easy to control his temper with them. Over time they had just become another part of his inner monologue. It was more like arguing with himself, they knew him too well in their own strange way. "...Do we have a deal?"

Here she went again, going along with him too soothe that terrible sensation of guilt. It was almost frightening how quickly they were falling into their old, familiar patterns. "I suppose so," she acquiesced, head lifting back up to look at him thoughtfully. "It...would be rather nice having you around after not seeing you for so long. And I'm sure the others would enjoy knowing where you are as well. Two years is a bit much."

"Yeah, it is. I just...." He drifted off, leaning back in his chair almost bonelessly now, not knowing what to say to that and not particularly worried about his or the dragons' comfort at the moment. He knew he wasn't any good at sustaining relationships when people weren't close by, didn't have any experience with it. He had never even had real friends until three years ago. People had a way of getting to know him a bit and then being scared off by the way everything went wrong around him and...certain other tendencies he had. It'd been that way ever since he was a child.

"You're terrible at keeping in touch with people. But...I do understand, what with everything that's been going on with the three of you."

He made a noise of affirmation in his throat. It wasn't as if there was any point in denying it considering he had just admitted it to himself. He sat back up and looked down at the pear beside him and decided that he wasn't interested in eating any more of it, a thought coming to him as he drained the rest of his water from the glass. "Claude's here. Dias is too, for some reason. So...where's Rena? At the inn?"

She looked at him, glad that it was over with, then wishing he would stop asking questions that could lead to arguments. "Upstairs in my room."

"Your room," he echoed. "Where are you sleeping?"

"In the living room, on the couch. Let's not start this again, darling. I'm trying to be a good hostess."

"Okay." He still shook his head at it though. They could have woken him up and moved him in to the living room, it wasn't like he hadn't been sleeping in the bed for nearly the entire day. "But what's going to happen when Bowman gets here? It's going to be pretty crowded if everyone stays in the house."

She was relieved when he dropped it so easily, apparently falling out of his stubborn mood and returning to his more pliable self. "They might all go to the inn, I suppose. Perhaps I should kick you out as well, I wouldn't want to seem biased." She smiled at that, waiting to see if he would catch on to the fact that she was teasing him again.

He almost didn't, but he was already watching her, so the implication of the smile was able to register before he reacted. "You always have to pick on me." He shook his head at her again, smiling in return as he did so.

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The boat had arrived in Herlie a little after five in the morning, which was too early in Precis' opinion. She hated boats. And port towns. She always worried about the salty air making Bobot rust, and every time she stayed in one overnight she dreamed about scraping all that rust off or, Tria forbid, replacing his parts or having to rebuild him from scratch. Her boots thudded against the gangplank as she walked down it, Bowman trailing behind her. "Brr. It's way, way too cold," she complained, shivering as her breath plumed.

Bowman nodded at her back as he followed her onto solid land, pulling his coat tighter around himself. "We could crash in the inn for a few hours and wait for it to get warmer."

"No way. Let's just take Bobot and get out of here," she ordered as she turned around to look at him. She had already been snapped awake by the cold, there wasn't a thing on the planet that could keep her here now.

"I told you. I'm not getting in that thing again." He set his jaw as he looked at her.

Precis rolled her eyes, shook her head at him, and put her hands on her hips, leaning towards him. Bobot struggled inside her backpack for a moment before calming again as she talked. "Look, you said that we needed to get to Mars. What's the point of hanging out here or walking all the way? We could be there in a couple of hours, it's not like it's that far."

"_No_. I'm staying in the inn's lobby until it heats up." He walked past her and started to make his way to safety.

"_Oh, come on_!" she called after him. This was _stupid_. Bowman was _stupid_. She turned and started to walk to the entrance to the town before her conscience got to her. That was stupid too, but she still ran after him to catch up with him, walking quickly as she made it to his side to keep pace with him. "Look, I'll go slow. I'll be careful and I won't pull any stunts this time. Don't tell me that you seriously want to walk all the way there."

"As if you could manage that for more than thirty minutes."

"I can! Look, you're the doctor, you're the one that everyone's waiting on. If this is so important then why don't we_ just go_?" Okay, technically Bowman was a pharmacist. Everyone still treated him like a doctor, though, since he acted like one and had enough knowledge or training in the field or whatever. Even if it was probably second hand or something, she guessed, it's not like she had ever plonked herself down and studied his degrees. That would be kind of weird. At least in her opinion.

Fine, so she had a point. It wasn't like Nineh was going to pop at any moment, but he did want to get back to her as soon as he could. First kid and all. Even if he was dreading coming home to the mood swings. He cut his eyes over to her. "You do one crazy thing and I'm going get out and start walking."

Yeah, like she was going to stop and let him out. "Deal," she almost shouted that, but she restrained herself. She did have some self control, it just came out at odd times. She held her hand out and smiled wide as he shook it briefly, pleased with herself. Running to the town entrance she called back to him. "C'mon, let's go!"

Bowman followed sedately, more than willing to put space between them. He really didn't want to see her invention transform again, it was bad enough just hearing it. Which he could, before he even rounded the corner. He was pretty sure that she had just woken about half the town. She patted the seat beside her as he approached cautiously, not liking the situation or that look one bit. He guessed that it was supposed to be something like a hover craft or hover car or whatever it was that Claude, Opera and Ernest had gone on about that one time. Except it didn't hover, it rolled on the ground like a carriage. Either way, he was certain he could thank them for giving her the idea for this and the one where Bobot somehow burrowed under the ground. Which he would, one day. Very nicely, of course. He opened the door and sat inside of it beside her, shifting his bag and backpack to the small space behind him, still dreading this experience.

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It took a little longer than Precis had hoped, but the two of them finally arrived in Mars.

Bowman got out and walked ahead of her, not pausing to wait for Bobot to finish reverting to his natural state. Picking Bobot up after he was done, she ran to Celine's house, passing Bowman as she went and knocking loudly on the front door. Eglas opened it, a cup of coffee in one hand and greeted her, the smell of breakfast cooking wafting out of the house and in to the street. She smiled brightly at him and looked around. "Hi, Mr. Jules! Um, where's everyone else?"

Eglas took a sip of his coffee and looked thoughtful briefly, still in the process of waking up. "I think they're all upstairs in the guest room."

"Okay. Is it okay if I go on up?" She was a bit anxious to start moving again. She hadn't seen everyone in a while, and she was still freezing, so she wanted to retreat farther inside the house as quickly as she could.

"Of course."

"Thanks. Hi, Mrs. Jules!" she called back to the woman as she saw her and headed upstairs, hearing several familiar voices getting louder as she approached. It sounded like Bowman had finally reached the house too, but Precis wasn't really paying attention to that as she rounded the corner, entered quickly, and started bouncing in place and giving Ashton and Celine an odd look. Celine was in the middle of pressing down hard on some sort of odd, slick looking, heavy cloth on the back of his neck as Gyoro and Ururun tried to stay out of her way. Was she _waxing_ him or something? It seemed kind of like something he would do. "Hey!"

A small chorus of greetings went up, Celine looking up quickly in surprise and pulling the smooth cloth away from Ashton's neck as he greeted her into the pillow. "Hello, darling. You got here awfully fast. Did Bowman come with you, or did you decide to go ahead?" She studied the marks on the back of his neck for a minute, her hand on the back of his head to prevent him from moving before deciding that the outlines for his new crests had taken well enough. She let him go and turned to Precis, disposing of the spent cloth and grabbing the next sheet distractedly, wetting the dry side that held the ink in place slightly with a bit of water from the glass on the nightstand to make the dry ink there transfer and settle more easily into his skin.

"Hey, Precis," Ashton repeated, turning to look at her as he was allowed to move. He took a deep breath and rubbed at his face, turning pink at yet another person of the opposite gender being in the room while he was partially undressed. It had nothing to do with that little crush he had on her for a while before leaving and not seeing her again for so long. Not at all. He was a bit shocked as well, Celine hadn't told him she was coming.

Precis nodded at the greeting and came over to watch our of curiosity once she realized that they weren't preforming some sort of odd hygiene thing. "Nope. He's downstairs talking to your parents. I dragged him here in Bobot." That drew a few looks from the others as they wondered what in the world she had made this time, but she was oblivious as she studied the markings. "What's that for?"

"Crest markings," Dias answered shortly from where he stood against the wall as Celine placed another cloth to the upper part of Ashton's shoulders, this one significantly larger than the last.

"Ooooh, is that how they do it? What's the big deal about putting them on? It doesn't look like it hurts. Why's he need them?"

Claude answered this time for Celine as she pushed down hard on the top of Ashton's shoulders, drawing a grunt from him and causing the dragons to sway in discomfort. "They're for Gyoro and Ururun. They're just outlines, she's going to put the crests in after breakfast."

"Why do they need crests?" She felt a little weird talking to Claude, what with the wedding and all and the unrequited crush she was trying to let go of because of it.

Bowman finally walked in to the room, all business now, waving at everyone quickly and dropping his backpack in the corner beside Precis before going over to the dresser, opening his bag and starting to sort through his equipment. "I'm going to have to get some blood samples from all of you," he informed them.

"What for?" Ashton and Rena almost chorused before he stopped, realizing that she was speaking as well.

"I have to check everyones' blood type to see if there are any matches." He unloaded the kits from the bag and started to open one of them.

Rena blinked. "There are different types of blood?"

"Yeah," Claude explained for Bowman. "Well, it's not really that different, but there tend to be several...well, it's a little hard to explain." Without using the word 'types' anyway, which would only serve to confuse the rest of them probably. A question popped into his head as a memory resurfaced suddenly and he remembered Celine telling them that this was 'new' technology for some reason last night. "Wait, weren't the doctors at the Lacour Front Line preforming transfusions while we were there?"

It took a moment for the intently focused pharmacist to get where that question was leading. "We've known how to do it for a few decades now but they'e typically reserved for emergencies as they could lead to the death of the recipient more often than not. One of the biologists at the university figured it out a few years ago and they've been studying it since. They're getting ready to publish the literature on it. I'll send one to you." Bowman nodded to Rena and crossed the room to move past Precis and stand beside Ashton as Celine moved out of the way, leaving the cloth on his back. "You first. I'm going to have to prick you a couple times on your fingers. It shouldn't hurt much." He clicked a pen-like object a few times, a very small, sharp needle ducking in and out quickly from a hole at the end, the largish testing strip he held in the same hand waving in the air as he did so.

Which did nothing at all to calm Ashton down, instead making him a bit more nervous. "Ah," he started, not quite sure how to react to that, opting to fall silent as he held his hand out.

Bowman grabbed the proffered hand and pressed the instrument down hard on the tip of Ashton' index finger and clicked. He placed it in on the nightstand quickly and blotted the drop of blood that emerged on the paper, pressing hard with his hand between each swipe. He had to repeat the process with the middle finger after he punctured it a one more time and the blood started to coagulate, not wanting to put too many holes in one place. He backed out of the way, tossing the needle in the trash bin Celine had been using before returning to the dresser to open another one. "Precis, you're next, then Celine." He looked over at Claude, Dias and Rena. "Then you three." He was going to go ahead and test Rena and Claude, she'd be upset if he didn't.

"Is it done yet? Do you know what type he has?" Precis asked, going over to peer past his shoulder.

He shook his head. "It's going to sit a little, then I have to drop several different types of solutions over the different samples to see which chemicals react with them." He wasn't in much of a hurry to actually test Ashton yet, but he wouldn't tell them that. If they knew his blood type ahead of time it'd get tense in here before it had to.

"Oh." Her face fell as she held out her hand to him, looking back to the others as he started the procedure. "So, why the crests again?" She was going to find out, one way or another.

Celine opted to answer as she removed the strip from the back of Ashton's shoulders. Everyone was here now, it was time to explain it all, and he was tense as it was. He'd start rambling if she left it to him. "For lack of better phrasing, they're going to bind Gyoro and Ururun's magics and transfer over to them during the ceremony. It goes like this, darlings; he has to have the crests placed on his body, but because the crests are designed to function the way they are, their power is directed to our dear friends here." She waved at the dragons and moved to get another cloth ready before Bowman came over.

"Once we get to the temple that this has to take place in, we have to gather a large amount of clay that is stored there somewhere, mix it with various substances and place it in the ceremony room. Ashton here cuts himself and recites a spell that will activate the room's magics until the blood reaches the clay and the magics start to take effect on their own. Once enough blood has come in contact with the clay mixture....Well, the ritual creates golems which the souls of these two will have to inhabit until the conditions are met and they return to their demonic form." Celine started pressing on the sheet now that Bowman was moving on to Dias. "The stronger the possessing demon or what have you is, the more blood is needed from the host to transform it."

"Golems?" Rena's eyes widened, staring at the two dragons in disbelief. "They're going to be like us?"

"Physically, they'll be near replicas of this one here," she explained, pausing for a moment to pat Ashton on his lower back lightly then returned to her pushing. "He's going to be one of a set very soon."

"Three Ashtons." Claude shook his head, trying to absorb that. "The world might never recover."

"Hey," Ashton whined, tossing him a fake hurt a look.

"I'm just kidding." He held his hand out to Bowman, Dias having already having been done before him. "You know I don't mean it."

"What are the conditions?" Dias asked flatly as he studied the dragons in response to the looks they were giving him. Mostly Gyoro. Ururun was a bit to subtle in his behavior and seemingly removed from the outside world most of the time for him to have been caught as easily as his red brother had been.

Ashton's voice and face grew pained as he responded before Celine was able to. "Um, They have to become...like us. It's...it's an ancient punishment ritual for demons and other possessing spirits."

Bowman looked over from beside Rena, a bit startled. "And they agreed to it?"

"What happens if they don't?" Rena added quickly.

"They did. We've already discussed this among ourselves. They actually seem rather set on it." She was a little angry at the man below her for responding before she was able to. Pressing down a bit harder than she really needed to helped that, though. Gyoro and Ururun nodded along a bit jerkily with her statement, surprised as the sensation travelled to them as they weren't expecting such intensity and Ashton gasped shortly at the rough treatment. "If both of them don't discover humanity before he passes or one of the others is killed, then they'll die trapped in those bodies."

Silence descended as everyone absorbed that. Bowman moved across the room, everyone's eyes on him now, to the dresser to begin the testing. He did Ashton's first and set it aside away from his view before continuing to the others. He didn't want to know the other brunet's yet, if he did he would be too nervous for his comfort as he did the everyone else's. He already knew his own, so he wasn't going to bother. Finished with the other tests, he finally grabbed Ashton's and looked at what he saw and compared it to others. "Tch. You'll be fine. We've got an exact match and a universal donor. Between that and the saline solution I brought, we'll be able to pump you back out of whatever danger zone you're in at the time while Rena's magic heals your wounds."

Celine sighed lightly and slapped Ashton on the side of his back rather sharply for making her and everyone else worry, Gyoro and Ururun jumping back as much as they could as she did so. He looked up in disbelief at her, mouth agape and eyes wide, but he didn't say anything about it. He might when they were alone again, though. If he could find the backbone he had mysteriously grown and then promptly lost last night. It had to be somewhere, he hadn't gone outside yet, after all.

Rena looked up from her hands at that, relieved and smiling slightly at the antics of the two on the other bed. "Who is it?"

"I'm the match. Dias is the universal donor," he said, looking over to the tall swordsman. "You okay with that?"

Dias nodded, shifting his gaze from Bowman and back to Ashton and the dragons. Gyoro was giving him looks still.

"I'll probably do myself first as much as I can and then you. Exact matches are easier on the body, especially when mixing. The more that's in his system, the better he'll take yours, most likely."

"That's fine." Dias was really starting to wonder what the fuck was making the dragon look at him like that, what exactly he had done to him. It had taken him a few minutes to remember as it had been so long, but the demon were staring in a way that he normally reserved for Bowman while his brother was outright ignoring his presence. Both had been behaviors that they had directed almost exclusively to the pharmacist, who annoyed both of them at times with his curiosity regarding how exactly their bodily processes functioned. He'd have his chance to ask them personally soon enough, he'd wait and not bother their host with it.

Ashton turned and shifted, looking a little unsure and grateful between the two. "I, ah-"

"Don't worry about it." Bowman already knew what was coming as a matter of course, he was sure everyone in the room did too. He looked to the door briefly, hearing the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs. "Save it for afterwards if you have to. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll be the one calling you up."

"Calling?" Ashton asked, the exchange reminding Claude that he still needed to give him one of the phones that he, Precis, and Opera had made before she left. Mostly so he and Rena could harass him if he didn't keep in touch again. Or maybe Celine, she seemed to do a good job of keeping him in line. Not that it was hard exactly, but he had always seemed to take it best from her for some odd reason.

A knock on the wall sounded and Labe turned the corner, smiling slightly. "Breakfast is ready. Sorry for the wait."

"It's fine. We've been more than busy enough up here." Celine rose from the bed, leading the others out of the room behind her mother. Ashton took up the rear, rubbing the spot that she had slapped him now that no one else could see him and wishing he could put a shirt on.

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Author's Note: I really wish that I had been able to make the ritual better, but the most that I was able to do was flesh it out so that it wasn't so....simple. Plus, I like the idea that Ashton's luck is so bad that he's still stuck with them and has to deal with trying to make them become human for a little while at least. I never realized that this character is so fun to torture before.


	5. Chapter 4

Summary: Many things happen to the group after breakfast. I'm not saying anything more other than it's so long I though about splitting it up several times but decided against it because it would kill the flow of it all probably. By long I mean a 22,000 word total before I started editing it. I wish I could say that it changed much, but it really didn't.

Author's Note: It's been a while since I bothered playing the game without recruiting Celine into the party, so her former engagement with Bowman may be misrepresented here. I'm claiming artistic license right now, but if anyone feels like sharing with me just how off I am, I'm actually a bit curious about it. EDIT 3/19/10: I think I'm done editing this chapter now. For some reason it was riddled with errors that I never caught fully, but I finally managed to fix my writing software and reread this chapter at a reasonable hour instead of at three in the morning. Sorry if I flooded anyone's inbox before this. ANOTHER EDIT: Did I say I was done? I lied. This chapter will never be done, every time I turn around there's some new error I've overlooked or accidentally created while editing.

Disclaimer: Square-Enix, intellectual copy rights, lalalalalaaaa. I'm not a lawyer or a banker of any stripe, I just know you own it and I'm not making any money from this.

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Claude stood silently in the shower, the water spraying on his slick hair and down his back. He knew that he shouldn't be hiding in the bathroom but he couldn't really bring himself to care. He needed something to relax his muscles, his back and neck were killing him from both how tense he had been and sympathy pains from what he had been watching for the past hour.

He really shouldn't have watched. He didn't know how Rena stood it, sitting on the bed and watching Ashton and Celine as he sat there in the chair and she placed the crests on the back of his neck and all along his shoulders. Rena was obviously anxious from the moment it had started, scratching at her palms as they glowed with her power and jumping minutely every time that Ashton winced or inhaled sharply and fighting the instinct to rush over and just _heal_ him but not able to completely. Celine and Ashton had agreed hesitantly with one another that neither of them were sure just how the freshly implanted heraldic inks would react; if her powers would drive it from his skin and force them to start over.

Ultimately, it had been their faces, body language and the conversation that had drove him from the room and here under the hot water. They both looked too pained and acted too alien after some time had passed for his comfort, despite their early attempts to make everything seem at least partially normal.

Celine had slowly grown paler than he had ever seen her, obviously disturbed by the experience; anxiety, fear and concern painted her face every time his muscles jumped involuntarily under his skin and the dragons jerked. Claude had sworn that she nearly started weeping a few times, her eyes would just get that glassy, swimming look to them. She had asked him quietly if they should take a break every few minutes as she dabbed at the mixture of blood and ink that dribbled from her work, which he responded to each time with a blank face and minuscule shakes of his head, which really suited Dias more than him. She would join the conversation every so often, both distracted and attentive at the same time and trying to sound calm and collected whenever she did so, but falling more and more silent as time went on.

Ashton had been the opposite and even worse to watch. Within the first thirty or so seconds the irritating liquid had caused the skin all the way around his neck and shoulders to become inflamed; his collarbone, chest, back, and arms following shortly after. He'd kept his head down after that, partially to keep his hair out of her way, but also to hide his face judging by the way he shrouded himself with that straight curtain of honeyed brown, doing his best to keep it over as much of his face as possible without disturbing Celine. It didn't really work; he insisted on talking with them throughout the process, most likely to keep their small audience distracted and make the situation less tense. It might have worked if he hadn't had to stop and collect himself every few minutes to force the pain back that kept slowly creeping into his voice until it had faded completely somehow, leaving what was normally animated strangely numb and flat.

He remembered absently saying that he couldn't imagine how any tattoo could have been worse than that. It had definitely been the wrong thing to say, Ashton had broken from the ongoing conversation suddenly and slowly explained how the hidden crests that he already possessed had been much more painful, invasive and disturbing to put in place than what he was experiencing at the moment, describing it in vivid detail that made even Celine uncomfortable. He wasn't naturally talented in the heraldic arts like Celine, Leon, Noel, and Rena are, he explained. The crests were made of a much more concentrated and potent ink that was implanted deeper under his skin, almost burned into his muscles. They had to be to for him to tap briefly into and control that power that everyone supposedly had but couldn't access or focus on their own without being blessed.

It had just been too overwhelming. Maybe it was the way he spoke so frankly and distantly about things that he would have had a hard time skating around with Claude himself in private, let alone in front of Rena and Celine after awhile and just...slowly turning into someone that wasn't _Ashton_ right in front of them. Perhaps it was not seeing him for so long and worrying about him on and off, knowing that he'd be back eventually someday, wondering when and on whose doorstep he'd pop up on and then finally seeing him there in such a state that did it.

He'd seen him awake and himself and talking and laughing and blushing with the others only an hour and a half ago. Neither him or Rena had wanted anyone to tell him the big news yet, although Bowman had let Nineh's pregnancy slip at the beginning of breakfast and Ashton had been so ridiculously overjoyed for them that he didn't even notice or care when the dragons bent down and ate everything on his plate. It had almost been like he had never been away. And then they went and watched that. Whatever it was, Claude wasn't going to go back to Celine's room for awhile; he needed a break from the sights and sounds that were to be found there at the moment.

He hated himself briefly for that. Ashton was the first male and fellow swordsman to join them on their investigation, the closest to him in age, and despite all the differences in personalities there they had become sparring partners and fast friends quickly after. It had been Ashton that had noticed his discomfort with the heavy, true metal swords of Expel and patiently helped him adapt properly to the weight of a real one in his hands to the point that it felt natural. He was the person that quietly advised him as if only making a suggestion in ways he could refine his technique when no one else was around. Doing all of that while going on about how he wasn't talented like Claude was and putting himself down all the time, partially from his self esteem issues, yes, but also to lessen his embarrassment when he made a mistake and then gently telling him how to fix whatever he had messed up in the very beginning.

Ashton even held back a little when he was having an off day and losing far too badly to make him feel a little better about it than he would otherwise, and he returned the favor in kind. Although Claude had to admit that they'd once come very close to trading blows the night after the Ten Wise Men destroyed the _Calnus_. They had been practicing when he realized suddenly that he was keeping pace so badly that Ashton had reverted out of sympathy for him to using mostly basic techniques that they had discarded shortly after they had started sparring instead of calling the match off. And then he'd sincerely apologized for it ten minutes after Claude ran off to avoid hitting him, going so far as to track him to the place that he was sulking at. For doing nothing, really; the way his technique had degenerated he could have been seriously hurt or even killed if Ashton hadn't been holding back the way he had.

He turned the water off as it started to run cold and just stood there for a bit, trying to figure out what to do. He was pretty sure now that neither Celine or Ashton had really wanted an audience in the first place, that they had let them follow them to her room because they didn't quite know how to warn either of them of what exactly was coming. That they had made a bad situation worse by doing so out of ignorance. He supposed it would be best to make up some reason to get Rena to go with him downstairs with the others, let the other two decompress and get used to the actual process without the distraction of visitors for the little amount of time they had left before Bowman would come up and bandage the new crests and the girls would go shopping; Precis had only brought one change of clothing for some reason.

He dried off and dressed himself hurriedly to leave the room, toweling off his hair before he went. He could hear Celine and Rena talking, and he was happy to hear it, it might mean that the two of them were taking it better, that they were finally starting to adjust. And then he heard Bowman as well and he had to stop and look at his watch to see how long he'd been in the shower. How did he lose thirty minutes when he told them he would be gone for twenty at the maximum? No wonder Bowman was in the there, Precis as well as her voice filtered through the doorway. The house had an amazing water heater if he had managed to get that much time out of it.

"Ew, that looks so _gross_. It's going to get better, right? Hey, can I-"

"_No_."

Ashton was giving Bowman another grateful look from what he could tell as he walked through door and hung out by the doorframe beside Dias, and Claude was relieved to see signs that the numbness seemed to have left him now if the way he shifted was any indication, though he hadn't realized that he had been perspiring so much. Maybe it was some sort of reaction to coming out of that weird trance he seemed to have fallen into about fifteen minutes in; Gyoro and Ururun were looking really dazed now, almost drunk. Precis was in front of him as she examined the work Celine had done very closely, having apparently moved on to his collarbone in his absence. Bowman was at the nightstand and getting ready to apply the salve by the look of things. Rena and Celine were both on the bed, the older woman laying back on it and looking exhausted while the younger one talked softly to her. Claude figured she had good reason for it, he'd only watched half of it and look at what'd happened to him.

Precis had been right earlier, though. Without the blood and excess ink covering them the crests were _disturbing_ right after being placed. It looked like someone had tied or held Ashton down, slowly removed his skin in very intricate, delicate looking patterns of various sizes and rubbed something dark brown or maybe black and mottled with green and orange in the exposed flesh, then removed it and selectively dripped hydrochloric acid over it. It had an almost bubbly appearance to it in certain places, apparently there was still enough layers of skin there to form blisters of some variety. Well, he was hoping those were blisters.

"Out of the way," Bowman shooed Precis quickly holding a large quantity of greenish gel in his hands, spreading it on his gloves before hovering them slightly in front of Ashton's chest and giving him a look that told Claude that whatever that stuff was going to do, it would _hurt_ while it did it. Maybe he should have stayed in the bathroom.

He was silently torn now between being thankful that he was facing Ashton's back and not his front and being angry with himself again for not being there in front of him and actively lending his support while all this was happening along with Rena, Celine and Precis. He kind of wanted to take a picture of it to show him later. Too bad he wasn't in the right frame of mind to enjoy the show, it seemed. Scratch that, his shy and every-so-slightly socially awkward friend would probably die on the spot if that actually happened long before Claude finally manages to figure out how to loosen him up enough to survive and enjoy it. He'd rather avoid that considering that he'd like to keep him around to old age with him if he could.

Ashton took a deep breath and tensed tightly, and the next thing Claude knew, Bowman had laid his hands out like he was going to strangle the other man but had very bad aim and hit him at the very top of his chest instead. Ashton jerked back despite his tensed state and a short, muffled scream came from him even as both of his arms flashed up, staining hard to catch Gyoro as he_ lunged_ at the pharmacist's throat, his jaws open wide. Somehow, he actually managed to stop and hold the red dragon in place before Ururun snapped out of the apparent stupor that had put him in and tore his brother away from Ashton's fading grasp and back away from their host's front as Gyoro finally seemed to start coming around.

Bowman came away from Ashton slowly as the other man's arms finally fell and his body shuddered violently with his breath, his face a mixture of emotion. "Oh, I'm gonna_ love_ doing your back, aren't I?"

At least Bowman could talk and move now. Everyone besides Ashton seemed to have been frozen in place once the salve had been put on his skin and found themselves unable to move even after the red dragon had snapped. Except Dias, _of course_, who had moved his hand to the hilt of his sword and had it out by the time Ashton managed to hold Gyoro back and was not moving from his new position now, eyes very intent upon the pair of possessing demons.

Ashton was too busy raggedly breathing like he'd been starved for air or drowned before he was able to respond coherently, but still sounding very odd and a bit giggly for some reason. "I...think that, ahahaha, they know what to expect now. I tried to waaaarrrn them but they don't seem to understand some sensations unless they feel them through meee first."

Okay, so this was getting _a little strange_. Gyoro and Ururun could feel through him now when they weren't actively possessing him?

_What exactly had happened in the past two years_?

"Whaaat?" Thank you very much, Precis.

"Ashton, darling, I didn't get around to telling them that yet." Well, now everyone was staring at Celine as she just lay there finishing her statement almost as if she was singing it at him and wondering just what _else_ she was keeping from them. Fortunately for her, she didn't have Ashton's self-esteem issues _at all_. As a matter of fact, Claude had been wondering on-and-off again since Bowman had joined the party rather inanely whether the pharmacist could transfuse Ashton with some of that ego of hers if he could get his hands on the proper equipment for the job.

He was also starting to wonder when exactly Celine had become Ashton's go-to girl/guy for his problems, he'd always thought that was him or maybe Rena sometimes and that he had only wound up in Mars because it was a little less distance to travel. Yeah, definitely going to have a talk with him later. Without Rena around now, they needed to hash out some guy stuff, apparently. Do some sort of male bonding thing. He'd really like to spar again but given how he looks right now that's probably not gonna happen. He'd figure something out, by the way this was looking he needed to mark his territory and all that. Claude was starting to feel oddly possessive of his previously truant best friend; he'd never really thought he would be in competition with _Celine_ of all people for anything or anyone, especially without knowing it and suddenly he was starting to realize that this was a strange line of thought and promptly dropped it and ignored it when it tried to _squiggle_ its way back inside his consciousness again.

It was really starting to bug Claude, too, the sound of Ashton's voice right now. It was almost like he had just gone insane. "Oh."

"Yes. Oh." She hadn't really moved outside of tilting her head and giving him a look that said he was going to be a dead man very soon.

"_Why didn't you tell me that_?" Ashton hadn't moved much either, even though he was breathless and all out laughing now as if what she had said was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. The stillness in him seemed to be mostly because he was so drained and loopy from all the punishment he had been through so far today or maybe....Well no, he couldn't be tied down, there weren't any straps there and besides, he'd have to lose _a lot_ of his inhibitions before _anyone_ got around to trying _that_ on him without him freaking out.

Celine realized then that he was a bit too out of it to threaten properly at the moment and looked away from him towards everyone else, tossing her hand lightly in their general direction. "I'll tell you all after this is done."

"_Fine,_" Bowman wrapped that discussion up neatly, scooping an even larger quantity salve out of the container and giving Dias a 'get over there' look and looking rather dangerous himself as he did so. "So, since I'm getting the feeling that Ashton just pushed himself _way_ beyond what he could handle at the moment, what with _saving my face and all_," Bowman threatened the dragons, mostly Gyoro, as Dias stepped to Ashton's side at a deadly angle, his sword still out. "Dias here is going to help me. If either of you so much as look at either of us _crosswise_ this time, he's not going to need an any rituals to get the two of you _off his back anymore_."

....Yeah, it looked like they had run out of patience for the dragons right now.

"....Hey, do you really think that's necessary? Ashton said that they got it now, he'd know better than anyone else," Claude said, finally moving around to get a look at Ashton and the dragons from the front. It was really odd, he had expected Rena to defend the demon dragons, at least a little. Hell, she had defended the them to Ashton's _face_ before he had accepted them. Maybe it was because in their confusion they had started acting like dragons again. He looked _terrible_ too, now that he was standing in front and could see all of him. No wonder he had been hiding his face as much as he could while the crests were being put in.

"I don't care and Ashton's not here right now," Bowman's voice was distant, still staring over the man's head at the demons as he said that, his tongue poking into his cheek as he finished."Ladies, could you leave us gents alone for a minute? It won't take long."

"_Oh, no way! _I wanna watch this, it's kinda interesting." Precis was kinda hoping to also get to see the crests that she had heard were under his skin when she had snuck up here to get something out of her backpack earlier. Ashton wore so much clothing all the time she didn't even realize he had them, hadn't ever seen him without the robe off that she could remember, except for really small inns where they all had to stay in one room together and then he never took off the black pants and protective long-sleeve turtleneck shirts he always wore underneath them. Before she heard that she thought he was some kind of really weird swordsman who could do element tricks and stuff like that or that maybe it was because of the dragons. Either way, she just wanted to see if his crests looked like Celine's when they glowed or were visible at all or whatever.

Rena stared up at him, narrowing her eyes questioningly at the pharmacist. "What are you going to do to them?"

"The only thing we're going to do is finish getting 'them' treated for the crests, dress those so they can heal, and put him back in his bed." He shifted is attention from Rena to Precis then, apparently going in order from who he liked best to least and getting harsher as he went. "_I don't care_ how interesting it is to you, if we wind up having to _manhandle_ him, _we'll need as much space as we can get_." Bowman tended to border on the edge of offensive at times with his bluntness when he was concentrating such as he was and things didn't go right for his patients, the girls would forgive him soon, probably.

It seemed like it was going to be her job to be reasonable for Precis at least, Rena seemed satisfied enough with her answer, so Celine stood and walked Precis through the door trying to figure out how exactly to explain to the others why Ashton had reacted to the ink and salve like that. "Come on, darlings. The sooner we get out the sooner we can have him back to his normal self."

Bowman watched the women leave the room. He didn't really care if they went downstairs or just hung out in the hallway, he just wanted them out in case they had to forcibly restrain Anchors somehow, given how not there he was, as he'd said before. It'd be difficult as it was already, but if he attacked even defensively and unarmed as he was, they'd have a problem. Their current target's training, natural abilities, fighting style, faux magics and physical build combined tended to make him very quick and slippery at times; far too agile and unpredictable for their good at the moment given the tight quarters. That wasn't even including the magics that Gyoro and Ururun possessed that he had somehow learned to tap into and manipulate inside that weird cave on the desert island directly south of the El continent. At least he thought that was what he did. Bowman didn't really want to know; he had been used to the mages pulling shit like that all the time, but when he had turned around to find _Ashton_ of all people doing it he had decided to drop it for the sake of his mental health. Though he did kind of like it if only because the dragons always seemed put off every time he did it. He turned to the two other men left in the room–Ashton didn't count right now–getting back to the matter at hand and nodding to Dias before turning his attention to Claude and speaking. "If we're lucky the shock of putting this stuff on his back'll snap him out of it. Since you're here, though, do me favor and hold him in place. Very tightly."

Claude wondered for a moment just how he was going to do that, he would normally go for the shoulders when trying to keep someone down if they were in the position that Ashton was, but he didn't think that that was a good idea here. This was going to be difficult; his friend was little taller and much heavier thanks to the dragons than he was, and between the fighting and said demons on his back all the time, Ashton had managed to get a good deal stronger and little heavier himself despite his still relatively light frame. "How about if I place all my weight across his legs and hold his arms down to keep balance, do you think that would work?" He was going to get Ashton's scream in his ear and possibly his head connecting to his jaw, but it was the only thing he could think of.

"Try it."

Ashton was either going to love him or hate him for this, but it didn't really matter; he wasn't very good at staying angry with anyone for more than thirty minutes on average anyway. He positioned himself as lightly as he could at first, being _very_ careful as he settled his leg across Ashton's lap and held on to the inside of his elbows, pushing them tightly to the arms of the chair before bringing his weight down on his leg. Claude nodded and turned his head out of the way, hoping their friend would come out of this quickly. This was even weirder than the whole barrel obsession, he wasn't even _responding_ as he positioned himself on top of him like he was. By the time Claude had started moving towards him like he had Ashton would normally be struggling or defending himself or pulling away or _something_.

Claude was fairly certain that the scream that had ripped unrestrained from Ashton as Bowman placed the salve on his back had permanently deafened him in his right ear and temporarily in his left as one moment he could hear it and the next he couldn't. He closed eyes in shock as Ashton's body surged beneath him and nearly bucked him off completely before he fell back quickly and when he opened them again, both of his feet on the ground now and bending over the chair, hands still planted to the other man's arms at least, and _Ashton _was back; clear eyed and seemingly lucid again and biting his tongue so fiercely he had drawn blood from himself, two trails of it sliding down his bottom lip to his chin seconds afterward. Claude was worried that he was about to bite it off, but he was otherwise silent and still, if trembling like one of those thousands of leaves he liked to call on to sneak up on a faraway enemy.

Ashton met his stare and nodded tightly, managing to remove his tongue from between his teeth with only a gasp escaping before he locked his jaw tight again and held on to the chair's arms for dear life as he shook violently while Bowman spread the salve along the new crests on his neck, back and shoulders. Claude stood up, feeling relieved that he didn't seem angry; more determined and grateful yet again than anything despite the pain when he had made eye contact with him. He really needed to get a napkin or something, there were even more trails of blood leading from his mouth and down his chin to his lower chest, stomach, and lap now that he was looking down in concentration like that. He looked behind him and saw a tissue box on the bed, knowing that he could take a guess very easily and know who it was for. Picking it up and taking it with him, he pulled out about a dozen out of them and waited for Bowman to be done and their friend to calm a little.

"Are you all okay?" Ashton's voice was wet, shaky and thick both from Bowman still applying the salve and the damage he'd just done to his tongue. Claude didn't know how he could manage to speak then and couldn't help but think there was probably even more blood stuck in his throat, his teeth were certainly red enough. He handed him the tissues as he reached for them and started wiping it all away, the brunet would've gotten offended if he thought that Claude was taking care of him too much and he had already been in the other man's lap today. Ashton had a weird way of being fiercely independent at times and drawing lines at odd places, but maybe some of those puzzle pieces were gathering for Claude right now thanks to all the talking he'd done earlier back when the crests were being put in and he was in that trance; all those things he talked about then must have done some interesting stuff to him mentally and emotionally. Maybe being the outcast he had been and everything else had led him to getting locked inside a barrel by the other kids a lot as a small child and he had developed his fixation as some sort of coping mechanism or something. He really shouldn't be psychoanalyzing Ashton, he realized, but he was pretty sure that it was just _his_ way of dealing with this situation. That or making up for lost time in his head, he didn't really know which.

"We're fine," Bowman replied evenly as he removed his gloves. "Your passengers almost didn't make it. You probably shouldn't be talking right now."

Ashton blinked and stopped wiping for a moment, a drop of blood falling to his lap and looking like he would anyway. Claude wouldn't be surprised this time if he chose to go off the beaten path again, he'd already seen and heard him do some things he never had and never thought he would see or hear him do before. He didn't, though, just looked over each shoulder in turn slowly thanks to the pain and tightness the crests caused to see who else was there beside Bowman and Claude, finding Dias waiting for him with his sword still unsheathed. Ashton supposed he was stuck pantomiming like Celine had been last night and drew a question mark in the air and pointed at Dias' sword. This was going to be terrible. He wondered idly when Bowman would stop studying his new crests and check his tongue instead to see if he could talk or maybe drink yet; his throat was oddly dry and the taste of his own blood in his mouth was growing rather stale.

Dias cocked his head slightly to the side and studied him, wondering if he should be asking yes or no questions or playing charades with him. "You don't remember?" His blue eyes narrowed when Ashton apparently decided not to use his head anymore, instead turning a fisted hand stiffly from side to side, his arm still as his fist shook beside him before drawing another question mark in the air. Dias hated this already, he had despised charades as a child and still did. While this wasn't quite it, it was enough to make Ashton very lucky for once; he had figured out how to behave around Dias surprisingly quickly for the most part, so he had grown a bit fond of the heraldic swordsman, otherwise he might be in trouble.

As much of a doormat as he could be sometimes, Claude was fairly certain of that there would be no shaking and nodding of the head coming from Ashton given how his neck still looked, but there was an alternative choice provided they could read whatever his script looked like. "Hang on a minute, she's got to have a pen and paper here somewhere."

"There's probably a pen in my bag, I don't have any clue about paper. Throw me the bandages while you're there and bring the tape beside it back here." Ashton was much less likely to be infected by anything in his mouth, and if he was going to have serious blood loss from what he'd just done to himself they'd have known it by now. They would have been out of tissues very quickly, for one thing. "Someone needs to get ice for his mouth, too."

Dias volunteered for the ice run in a heartbeat, preferring it over babysitting a mute Elurian whose only modes of communication right now consisted of facial expressions and gestures. He'd talk to him when he was allowed to talk back. If he was going to insist on charades he would be driven truly insane, not whatever it was that Ashton had just pulled; he'd go truly mad and kill them both, if not all four of them. Alright, six if you counted the dragons, which he didn't at the moment.

"Oh, _good_," Ashton near mumbled absentmindedly after Dias left the room, not caring to bother with miming or writing to anyone now that his first attempt was over. Claude rolled his eyes and tossed Bowman the bag of bandages and brought the tape over, forgetting about the pen and paper since Ashton had decided to return to his previous display of different uncharacteristic attitudes. He figured that it was about time for his tongue to start swelling, that would explain the mumbling. "_Now I remember_."

Bowman didn't say anything as the man sitting in front of him started talking, it was his choice to open any wounds he had inflicted on his tongue that might have just_ barely_ been starting to heal on their own. The pharmacist focused himself on bandaging the crests, between it and the salve it would calm the irritated muscles and skin around the tattoos, insure that they stayed clean, and encourage the ink to settle in the other man's skin before they let him take a shower and started this all over again later tonight. This was going to be fun. "Yeah?"

Claude was looking at Ashton already so he hadn't had the chance to miss the utter mortification that passed over his face and the way he paled a bit before he looked away, which was a change from the usual blushing reaction. It was a day of oddities so far as Ashton was concerned, apparently. "Ah, d'you think the three of you could forget everything I told you?" So Claude's guess was right, either all the pain or the inks or a combination of the two had somehow drugged him enough to cause all the bizarre behavior of the past two hours. He seemed to be blanching even further as the sound of several sets of footsteps that weren't Dias or at least Dias alone sounded through the hall.

"What'd he tell you?" Bowman must be calming down now, he was getting nosey again.

Claude nodded and smiled at the seated man. He'd tell the girls not to tell the others or to mention any of that stuff around him unless he brought it up first. Celine and Rena were smart, though, they already knew that most likely, the three of them had been traveling the longest with him, after all. "Nothing."

"_Ashton, are you okay_?" Rena was sounding very worried as she led of the small pack of girls inside, a glass of water in her hand as she approached the man of the hour and handed it to him while Dias took the rear out of common sense, a cup of ice in his. Claude imagined that being trampled by them would be an experience considering Precis' boots and Celine's high heels.

"Yeah, I'm okay." At least the color was returning to his cheeks as he said it and drained the water in one go, but he had a feeling it was not just a sign of normality or embarrassment but also their friend's selective boundary issues popping up again. Claude had thought that the year they spent traveling together had knocked all of that out of his head considering how everyone was always on top of each other, but he guessed it had come back in his long absence. "I've had worse."

"When?" Precis asked abruptly, crossing her arms and...searching Ashton's body for something as she did so._ She really needs to stop that, if he catches her looking like that he's gonna have a coronary_, Claude thought to himself, his thoughts then turning to debating whether his friend's crush on the inventor had died or not in the past two years.

"Do I really need to _list_ that?" Ashton paused, looking at Rena curiously. She was right in front of him as she took the glass back and Dias handed him the ice in turn. He still didn't seem inclined to look around much it seemed, good thing for Precis.

Really, Ashton should know better than that after what had just what happened here. Rena gave him one of her 'Ashton' looks. It was a bit off since she hadn't used it in a while, but it had still gotten the point across.

"Alright, fine. Every session that I had for getting my crests put in when I was a kid, the time I was passing by a stable door and it broke open and I got trampled by a horse, pretty much every time I was wounded badly while traveling with you, when I got my hand slammed in a door and nobody could open it for half an hour so they finally took the hinges off to get me out, the first time I got badly injured after I started getting feedback with these odd_ parasites _I've been hearing so much about lately–"

"Okay, that's enough." Claude shook his head a little. He had a feeling that his peer would keep going on well past anything true if allowed to so long as it comforted or distracted at least one of their female companions; the door one sounded a little overblown or suspicious, though he wasn't going to dedicate any time to it right now. That and the 'parasite' crack had almost made him laugh and he didn't really want to be the one to break the tension like that, even if the dragons were looking very hurt now just like Ashton had probably meant for them to. That look of studied innocence was staying there no matter how much they looked at him, after all.

Rena looked a little awestruck, her eyes going wide as she stared at the seated man before her. "You got trampled by a horse?" He figured that was either her love of animals kicking in or she had the same suspicions he did at the moment. At least the horse one didn't sound like base meanness on the part of others, just Ashton's luck again.

Bowman decided to break into the conversation as his patient nodded at her as if it happened to everybody and rolled ice in his mouth. "Lift your arms." He came around and wound the bandages around his upper chest, upper arms and his neck a few hundred times, sniped the end of the bandages off and secured it as Celine lifted Ashton's sweaty hair out of the way. "Right. You get to go hide in the bedroom and rest for a couple hours now. Think you can get up and get in there on your own, or do we got to help you?"

The pharmacist really should have known better than to ask him like that after what had been going on judging by the expression that flashed across Ashton's face. He got up slowly and haltingly, definitely in need of help even though his body language told everyone that they probably didn't want to make any offers at the moment. Standing finally, he swayed a little before stabilizing himself. Ashton took more ice into his mouth and exited the room, lifting his glass in either a mocking or sincere–Claude couldn't tell from the view he had, but he'd say if he was mocking anyone it was Bowman–salut to everyone behind him now as he went, the soft slapping of Celine's and Rena's palms against Bowman's shoulder and chest following him out.

\\\\\

Dias knew the second that the seamstress had shown Rena and Precis Ashton's new robe, while it was only about seventy-five percent done–Celine had paid her quite a bit to make it her top priority apparently, it was supposed to be done tomorrow morning at the latest–that he had been right in his assessment of Celine. It wasn't as though he had any doubts about it, it was just good to know that he had confirmation that would very publicly be shared first with the group gathered here in person, fly to the others via the damn cellphones, and then probably appear in the papers somewhere thanks to Chisato. Even Opera and Ernest would hear about this one and they were in a different 'star system,' whatever that was, altogether apparently.

Actually, it was demonstrating that none of the females of their group understood the purpose of travel wear, even ones that were so rare and easily identifiable to a type and tradition as Ashton's. The two of them were _cooing_ and _drooling_ over the damn thing like they wished it was a dress that they could wear to_ prom_.

He was...._Almost glad_ that he had agreed to Celine's request to watch the girls as she let them loose around town on their own with her money and make sure that they didn't do anything silly and start buying bathing suits at the beginning of winter, because right now he was rushing out the door to cry his eyes out laughing.

Only Ashton. This has to be the type of thing that could only happen to him.

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Ashton closed the book he had been reading and looked over to be sure that Claude was really sleeping in the bed next to his and wasn't pretending like he had been last night. Deciding that he was this time, he rather rudely woke the sleeping dragons on his back by thumping the book to his forehead lightly, a trick that he had learned now that they are so tied to one another. So long as he was the one intentionally doing it and sending it, they couldn't send it back in his direction and it was apparently sharper than what he felt himself for some odd reason that he couldn't quite suss out.

He knew that there was something there to it, though; when intense or painful sensations started getting sent back and forth between them he could feel it too, it was just worse because more often than not _both _dragons were sending back to him at the same time and with enough of it going around long enough he would either pass out and wake up with a headache, which he can understand, or become giddy then and vacant or dead and hollow at the same time, which he cannot understand. He'd somehow managed to fall into both of the latter states earlier, which left him to conclude that when he did die his corpse would be easy enough to find because it would never shut up, it would constantly be shouting out his life's story. If that wasn't bad enough, both states always left him feeling just not himself and drained for the rest of the day. All of which explained his little...spells earlier in Celine's room that Claude had told him about before he went to bed. He'll have to check and see if she's told them about that bit yet too, otherwise he might stutter out an explanation without needing to. Unless he didn't tell her about that. He didn't know if he had or not then, his memory of that night was so hazy he barely remembers the look on her face when the dragons let him take over again and he started to lose his balance. He hadn't actually slept in the physical sense for around five days by the time Gyoro had arrived on her doorstep. He didn't know how they could push his body like that and not have him either fully dead or crazy by the end of it, but they managed it every time.

They awoke startled and grumbling, Gyoro's mental presence bumping abruptly against the surface of the rather low ceiling in his mind that he had given the demon's consciousness after finally remembering what exactly he had done. It was incredibly odd to be punishing a being that was thousands of years old and intelligent and wise in ways he couldn't comprehend like it was a dog or something, but he had gotten used to it once enough time had passed after their minds had slowly become intertwined like they were now. Ururun was still hovering below the ceiling he was normally set at, not being disciplined like his brother but still hesitant to come out for some reason. He probably knew that if he started talking to his host right now Gyoro would attack him when he was distracted and then he would be in trouble too. It had happened many times and eventually he had stopped trying to figure out who had started what and just treated them both as guilty when it happened, but right now he had his awareness of Gyoro's consciousness confined in such a small space that if he did anything more than breathe and think very calmly he'd feel it.

It had been absolutely bizarre when he came to the sudden realization that he was now effectively the king maker instead of the pawn in this relationship somehow. The dragons almost never agreed on anything and he was the deciding vote ninety-five percent of the time. Even when they did have full possession he could be sure that he would be back in control of his body sooner or later just due to all the mental and physical fighting they did; they'd switch him in just to take a break to their physical bodies as it were and then start attacking each other again and forget whatever their plans were until it was too late and he was back in control and more mentally.... Stable isn't the right word, but whatever it is, by the time they're done he has more of it again than the two of them combined.

Anyway, Ashton didn't really care about their sibling rivalry and he actively disliked if not outright hated it when they fought. They where attached to him, after all; not only did they all share pain and other sensations now, the motions of their muscles and spines definitely had serious effects on his own if they were too active or quick and he wasn't braced for it properly. Moving around was a team effort and earlier today that concept had apparently been lost on at least one of them in the heat of the moment. His memory wasn't clear enough to pinpoint the exact moment it had happened or the motion that had caused it, but he was certain that either Gyoro's attempted attack on Bowman whether or not it was led by confused instinct or Ururun's hasty retrieval of his brother which had been motivated out of shocked understanding of the situation had pulled one if not more of his back muscles again, he knew that ache too well for it to be anything else.

He'd like to track Rena down and ask her to heal him of that and his tongue too as he can still taste his own blood, but her powers aren't specific like that; enough time hasn't passed for the crests to be settled and he doesn't want to repeat the process on the most fundamentally important–and thus _painful_–part of the binding spell that will be etched into him over the coming days as they travel. He might have considered asking Bowman for something if it hadn't been for the fact that somebody had nearly taken his head off–_the dragons are aware of his thoughts all the time, so he goes ahead and mentally taps on the floor/walls/ceiling/whatever it is he's managed to place around Gyoro's mind here, it might actually incite some _**_guilt_**_ one day; which happens to be one of the things they're going to have to learn in order to return to their old body once all this is over_–but he'd really rather not look into the eyes of the man that he and Ururun had just barely been able to save right now. The thought that Dias was there helped soothe his own conscience, but it doesn't erase the fact that the only way for Dias to have been guaranteed success in stopping Gyoro from where he had stood would have either been that he cut in to Ashton's own neck, head, shoulder, back, or spine or had been able to calculate his swing in such a manner so quickly with all the movement going on that it would indicate that he's actually a reincarnated _war god_ of some sort. As much as he loves, respects, and admires the man, he's just not ready to make that type of leap yet, however cliché that might sound.

Deciding that the dragons have heard enough about their less than stellar performance earlier today for now at least, Ashton gets up and blanks his mind for a bit; he'd just flooded them with roughly as much thought volume as the both of them did him when all three of them were arguing with one another at the same time for about two minutes or so, considering that it seemed the demons were incapable of separating their thoughts from one another's minds when they were both awake at the same time. He padded down the hallway as much as he could considering that both Claude and Celine have stayed home to sleep the events of the morning out of their systems. Giving the stairs the same treatment he reached the living room where he noticed that Bowman has somehow fallen asleep sitting up on the couch. There's no book that he can see or a blanket in his lap to keep him warm considering how cold it'll get when someone opens the front door, so he grabs a blanket from the linen closet while he's down here and drapes it over him before continuing on to the kitchen, which was his original destination.

Once he arrived he located a plastic bag in one of the drawers and set it aside for a moment to open the fridge and removed another pear; the variety that are stocked in there are in season now and for some strange reason it's one of those fruits that he only feels comfortable eating when they are. He thinks for a moment, looking at it in his hand before deciding that no one's going to see him and sticking it in his mouth and holding it in place with his teeth while he empties some ice in the bag and ties it to prevent the water from leaking when it melts. Job done he takes the pear out of his mouth and takes a bite out of it before entering the living room, going up the stairs and returning to the guest room. Claude's a deep enough sleeper that he'll be able to sleep through any noise the bag makes, he's not really worried about the pear.

He has a back he needs to ice and a stomach to fill slightly so that he would last until the planned early supper. The dragons had at least three strikes against them already for the day, he wondered how many more they would have before it was over....

....He hadn't meant to think that.

\\\\\

Bowman woke up to the sensation of something small hitting the back of his head and then doing it again when he moved it out of the way of whatever it was. It took a third pelting for him to realize that he was covered by something soft and warm and a fourth projectile hitting his head for him to open his eyes and submit to wakefulness. He didn't care where the blanket had come from after the fifth one connected, he turned his head so swiftly that his ponytail flipped around to smack the side of his face as he noticed Dias. Not even inside the house fully, just leaning in through the front door and holding a handful of those traditional Mars candies that the Jules family always kept by the door on a table for visitors.

Why did Dias' eyes look red, though? Bowman didn't think he was the type to take anything, quite the opposite. He was the type of person that studiously avoided those things, not out of weakness, but strength of character. He knew the man hadn't been crying, though. That just wasn't possible with him, Bowman was fairly certain he hadn't been born with tear ducts. "....What is it?"

"I need a camera."

Oh, well that explained everything. "What for?"

Dias fell silent for a moment, his eyes lifting to the ceiling before falling back down to him. "Come here and keep your voice down, I don't want Ashton to hear this." The things he did for his friends, really.

"Fine." He couldn't keep even a little bit of the anticipation he felt from his voice as he shoved the blanket out of his way unthinkingly and made and his way over. This was going to be good, Bowman could feel it. "What?"

"Celine ordered Ashton a new robe." Dias didn't really know how even with the level of self control he had that he was keeping himself from laughing like the man he'd just mentioned earlier in the day again, he really didn't. Maybe he had used up his quota for the rest of the year. "I think that we should get a picture of it to warn him with."

_Oh, man_. He knew Celine's fashion sense, he could imagine it now and he didn't know whether to laugh or start digging their comrade his grave so that it was ready for him when he finally saw it. "How bad?"

"Rena and Precis asked the seamstress how much it would cost to make a dress just like it." He had gone back inside in time to hear that one, then promptly decided to usher them to the actual clothing store and come here to do something about this whole thing.

Bowman bowed his head a little and rubbed at his face as he tried to compose himself. If he knew Ashton at all he wouldn't be able to sleep for a while yet. He might have already heard his first part of the exchange, but he was far from rude most of the time, so he wouldn't come to check or eavesdrop most likely. "Oh, I have _got _to see_ this_."

"Go get a camera, then."

Bowman threw Dias a look. "The only camera that I know about is in Precis' bag upstairs in the guest room. Take a guess who's still there and probably not asleep yet." He thought for a moment while Dias' watched him, apparently not considering that a real excuse. "Right. I'll go up there and tell him she wants it for something and decided to wake me up to get it for her if he asks."

He felt more than heard Dias shut the door softly behind him as he trudged up the stairs slowly, trying to plod along like he would if this situation he might have to talk about was real and headed inside the guest room. He ignored the two men in their respective beds and headed straight for Precis' backpack, hoping to Tria as he did so that she had taken the metal monstrosity that she called Bobot with her. Bowman seriously considered doing his best to destroy the damned thing when he found that it was in there and turned off or 'on standby' or whatever the hell it was that she called it when it was like this, but opted to move on and finish the mission as a man's life was potentially in danger here. He found it finally, got up and turned around and there was Ashton, looking very, very uncharacteristically angry in his direction. Why the hell was he _sneering _at him like tha–Oh, he's looking at Gyoro, who happens to have his head turned conspicuously the other way now, looking away from both of them with a trail of smoke drifting from his mouth. He's suddenly very, very grateful that Anchors is so damn forgiving of his friends all the time and that he's not one of the dragons. He's also praying again that he never finds out that for the first few weeks they had travelled together he had referred to him as '_the kid_' in his head like he always does when he finds him like this. He didn't know how Ashton would take it if he had to explain that it had been just because of his social awkwardness and that innocent air he has about him that tends to hide his actual age most of the time. "Saving my life, huh?"

Ashton just laid there for a couple more seconds with that look on his face before he looked up at him, his expression changing instantaneously to that friendly little smile he tries to wear most of the time, although his quiet voice has a decidedly hard undercurrent to it when he speaks. "Something like that."

Now Bowman's noticing the less-than-half eaten pear in one hand, the book in the other, and the _very_ fresh bag of ice on his back, which Ururun, his other benefactor, is curled around like a _damn cat_ and purring softly just like one as he sleeps. He's torn between gratitude and concern for him and great relief now that he realizes just who placed the blanket over him and how close he and Dias had most likely come to getting caught just now. _Shit._ "What happened?"

"One of or both of these two pulled muscles in my back." Ashton had looked back to the book even before he spoke, and knowing him he didn't really want to answer truthfully but did it anyway out of courtesy. He doesn't want refer to it around him or ask for anything from him after a certain incident happened, Bowman thinks.

"I'll be back a bit later and make you something for it. I need to run a few errands for Precis and Rena right now, but I'll be back as soon as I can." And then Bowman is just _gone_ before he can hear even half of that stuttered thank you that he knew was coming before he even said it, down the stairs, through the living room and out the door that led to the outside world, motioning for Dias to follow him just in case Ashton had decided to get up and look out the window and spontaneously developed the ability to run as fast as that thing that Bobot had turned into that he still couldn't believe he had ridden in._ Again_. "_Got it._"

Dias is so much taller than the pharmacist that he doesn't have to put much effort into keeping up with the shorter man or pay much attention to where he's going as he can catch up so fast, he's looking about the town now as he speaks to him. "Do you know where we're going?"

"Does the name 'Rose' ring a bell?"

Dias doesn't bother speaking now or making gestures; Ashton had already ran his tolerance dry for those today. Bowman and the others gathered here knew what his silences meant anyway, except maybe Precis, who just doesn't seem to get anything that isn't mechanical at times, so there's no real point in responding.

They both made the exact same beeline for the seamstress' house, not even watching each other, although Bowman did slow slightly to let Dias take the lead up the stairs and through the door. He'd seen what happened to people in the streets that hadn't gotten out of his way in time when he was focused and in a hurry before. Dias might be exceptionally tall and slim but the man was also just a hair shy of being a brick wall somehow, people tended _bounce_ when that happened.

"Can I see the d-robe that you made for Celine again, please? Our mutual friend here has a wife that he thinks would really like the design of it and he wants to show her a few pictures of it before he comes back on his next visit." Bowman might not have been trying to hide a smile at Dias' stumble, but Rose had certainly bought it and when she turned away from the mannequin she had been working on for him to see, his head nearly exploded from the force he had to exert to keep from laughing right there in Rose's 'showroom' as he remembered her calling it.

Thankfully, Bowman had either never made that big of an impression on her or he'd changed too much for her to recognize. He operated the camera as quickly as he could, snapping a picture every time she moved the doll to show a different angle before the camera wouldn't allow him to take a new one, which meant that the container for the developing photographs inside were full. "Ahh, out of film. Thank you very much, ma'am." It must have been his voice that did it, because now she was blinking like an owl at him from behind those thick, round glasses of hers and he and Dias were flying out of there and heading back to the Jules' residence in a heartbeat and Bowman is laughing like it's his lifeblood as he pulls the photos from the camera and waves them in the air to make them develop quicker and Dias is smiling so widely his teeth are _almost_ showing.

"Okay," Bowman sputtered as they neared the house, still laughing. "What's the plan now?"

"Well, it's either Celine or Ashton at this point, isn't it?" Dias had stopped a few feet ahead of him and was looking to the guest room window.

"....We could wake up Claude and show him these real quick too. Ashton's probably not going to be much help unless he catches her sympathy by fainting or something in front of her." Bowman's looking through the pictures now to make sure they came out right. He's also starting to think he might have missed a second calling as a photographer as he thinks out loud. "At least that way if this drags out for hours or Rena and Precis somehow appear to tell her you bailed on them it'll still be three-on-three."

He should have thought of that. By the time he'd joined up with the group officially those two were almost making him jealous by having a sparring partner that could meet and adapt to them as quickly as those two did for each other. He was fairly certain that half the brigade had turned out to watch them every time they sparred at the Lacour Front Line, hell, he knew for a fact that bets had started getting placed when it got really close and heated as it always seemed to. But then again, Claude had shocked him a little earlier today by the way he had hung behind with him while his best friend was being inadvertently tortured by Bowman for so long before he finally moved in from the side. "Worth a shot." Dias led the way again, thinking that if Ashton saw him before Bowman he'd let them wake Claude up without saying anything and that the blond might wake up quicker if he saw him first.

Dias would be proven almost completely wrong in that assumption, it would turn out.

Ashton had let them enter verbally unmolested, though he had watched them, but once Dias passed him Bowman could only watch as the other brunet leaned himself painfully over to the side of his bed with the empty metal wastebasket and dropped the pear core he had been holding in his left hand by about three and a half feet straight into it as he released it. The clattering bag that caused rang out as Dias entered the corridor between the younger mens' beds and Claude shot straight up and turned to the heraldic swordsman on his right and almost yelled at him '_What was that for?_' before noticing that Ashton was pointing at Dias and Claude actually looked at him.

Dias didn't care how dire the straights he was in, Ashton was in a lot of trouble now with him. That was a lie, though. He should have known better by look he had given him as he had entered and remembered that this had been one of Ashton's self-appointed duties when Dias entered their room at any inn they had ever stayed in while things were tense between Claude and he. The Elurian had probably done it just for old times' sake, there was nothing wrong between the two right now, hadn't been for some time. Not that Ashton had any way to know that, but one could tell it was all a joke to him from the expression he wore.

Claude still threw his pillow dramatically at the other man before turning his full attention to Dias, Ashton not really able to watch as it sailed a good two feet over his head and hit the wall behind him, but at least in his direction. Too bad that had happened too many times in the past apparently for the brunet to take seriously; all that he did was pantomime a large yawn at him and smile. "What, is something wrong? _Did something happen to Rena?_"

Bowman had been pretty sure before that leaving the two of them alone together in same room for any significant amount of time meant that they both reverted to the age of ten, but now he was pretty _damn_ sure of it. He was wondering if he should go ahead and show the pictures to Ashton just so that they'd have another adult to talk to in a couple minutes. "Nothing's wrong with Rena." He almost wanted to mention Precis but mostly Celine too; something a little _weirder_ than normal seemed to be going on between the younger brunet and his ex, and he was genuinely curious as to whether he needed to be warning Ashton to stay far, far away from her or if it was platonic, but then he supposed he had the proof in his hands anyway. "We just wanted to show you something." He'd let Dias decide. Personally, he had always wanted to see just what exactly it would take to make Ashton faint as much as everyone always joked and thought about it, and the events of earlier today hadn't worked, so....

Of course, Dias being Dias motioned for the pictures and when he received them handed them to Claude instead. Who proceeded to just stare wide-eyed as he flipped through them while his friend slowly positioned himself so that he was sitting Indian-style on his own bed while moving his book and ice bag to the nightstand between their beds. It took a minute, but Claude busted out laughing finally and tossed them onto Ashton's bed blindly.

Who picked up the one that had actually made it to the bed, turned it over and looked for a second before sighing, making a face and shaking his head now that it didn't quite hurt so much. "I knew it."

Dias raised an eyebrow. It was fairly obvious to everyone that met him that the heraldic swordsman had certain interests and tendencies that skirted around if not outright crossed over to the feminine. Still, he had been expecting something different out of this. He wasn't even blushing or looking shocked, just determined and slightly displeased.

"_What_?" Bowman needed some clarification on this _right now_. If the other brunet had actually colluded with Celine in this he was going to start checking him for the presence of a concussion. As odd as it was to say, Bowman had long ago concluded that Ashton could make a living being a fashion consultant if he wanted to. It was a bit mind-bending considering what a dichotomy that was with his skill and talent with his short swords, but he wasn't a judgmental person. Bowman had long ago come to the conclusion that he either had a lot of sisters or had come from a very well off family, most likely both, in order to reconcile that and his ever-present manners with everything else.

His friend didn't respond to Bowman as the seconds ticked by and the other two men watched him, so Claude decided to ignore their presence and push Ashton to respond like he would if they were alone. "Is that what you two did last night when she came to take you downstairs?"

Dias shifted where he stood and blinked slowly while Bowman made a disturbed face and stared openly when Ashton nodded and finally started to blush. He couldn't help it, the way the pharmacist's mind worked the question and its response indicated to him that he needed to get a body-fluid testing kit and make a sweep of the downstairs before he ever sat on, let alone slept on that couch again. It was taking a lot of effort to get his mind back on track and out of the gutter now.

"Yeah, among other things. We had a bit of a fight about it." He needed to get up and move now. He was glad his back was numb enough that he could do it without hurting. "Can you pick up the others? You're closer to them than I am." He'd really like for the conversation to start going in a different direction; he wasn't stupid, he knew how Bowman and maybe Dias had taken that. He knew Claude thought he would die if a woman ever touched him, so there probably wasn't any danger there. "She didn't show me the designs or anything, but I knew from what she told me that it would be terrible for traveling and maneuvering in. It looks like something a woman would go to a ball in." He really wanted to go wake Celine up and talk to her about this again, but he could just imagine what the others would think if the deal they had made was brought up. Which it very well could be. Celine would do it in a heartbeat if it would prove a point she wanted to make and she didn't care what other people thought about her. Not like that at least.

Bowman moved over to help Ashton get off the bed when he started shifting like that, remembering his back as he moved stiffly. He was glad for the slight rambling the other man was doing, it helped him get his mind back to where it needed to be and was dispelling any notions of head trauma he had been entertaining.

Dias helped Claude gather the scattered pictures and then stood and made his way out of the room to Celine's door and started knocking. Ashton was getting out of bed now and didn't seem pleased, so it was time to move on to the next phase of this encounter.

Bowman grabbed Ashton's wrist and held on tightly when he realized what Dias was going to do. He was glad he did it when the other brunet heard the knocking and dropped the lone picture he was holding as a look came over his face that said that he really wanted to run and hide. He caught Claude's eyes and the blond came over to help pull their struggling friend out to the hallway and came to a stop behind Dias. This was going to be fun.

Ashton shifted in their grasp and tried to blank out what was happening around him as his face grew even hotter. It wasn't like he could get away really, he was surrounded on three sides; the best he could hope to do probably would be to make it downstairs or maybe even outside if he was lucky for once before one of them tackled him to the ground and the whole thing started over. At least the dragons were enjoying his discomfort, especially Gyoro, not that he blamed him for it. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he could _swear_ he had just heard the front door open and footsteps downstairs now.

"_Hey! Dias! _Are you here?"

"Dias, where are you?"

_Oh. Oh, no. Oh, Tria, please no_. Now he was going to be half-nude in front of the girls _again_–Celine wasn't counting for some reason and he didn't want to contemplate that right now–this time while having what he knew was going to be a _very uncomfortable _discussion for him. Maybe if he was fast enough he could make it to the bathroom and lock himself inside. He didn't think the others would damage the Jules' property. No, wait. Celine was here. She'd burn the door down and then tell her parents that it was an emergency, that she had to do it. He was_ trapped_. He couldn't feel his hands anymore either, he was pretty sure that all the blood that was normally in them had made its way to his face now. It certainly felt like it.

Dias was still knocking, but now some rustling noises could be heard from the other side of the door. "Up here," he called. He didn't really care about the look on the shorter swordsman's face or if he was angry at any of them once this was done, it'd be a miracle if he still was by supper, let alone the next morning.

Celine ran her hands through her hair again and put her robe on, ever so slightly perturbed. Something better be very wrong with Ashton, otherwise she was going to start throwing spells around. There was absolutely no other reason for all of this, the rest of them could handle themselves on their own. Unless they had suddenly started being possessed by powerful demons that were effecting them as well, then it might be excusable. She opened the door and gave her visitors a stern look, vaguely wondering why the other men of their group seemed to be shielding their awkward companion from her like they were._ Why are Bowman and Claude holding him like that?_ She was suddenly worried that Gyoro had taken control of him and tried to attack the pharmacist again or run away before being put back in place by his host. "What is it?" She noticed the other women entering the hall, but now she was focused on whatever it was that Dias and Claude were holding. They looked like papers of some sort. No, those were...._Oh, they're dead if those are what I think they are_.

"Er, ah, um, well, we, I, ah–" Ashton didn't know why he was stammering like that, he barely realized that he was doing it until he had somehow managed to form actual words a few times. He was a bit too busy staring in _absolute horror_ at Precis and Rena to realize that it was Celine that had just spoken.

Dias was ignoring it; he was vaguely hoping that Ashton did indeed pass out sometime during this. It might make a point to the women gathered here about just how terrible their common sense was if it could be overridden by _fashion _of all things. "It's about the dress you ordered for him." He was going to drop the pretense of it being a robe, the damn thing was as much of a dress as he had ever seen. He found the strength to gesture now, indicating to Claude to lift his pictures for Celine to see as he did the same.

"_It's not a dress!_ And it's pretty! It's going to look really good on him!" Rena got out before Celine even opened her mouth. She was a bit angry at the other men for doing this to Ashton, it was obvious enough that he didn't want to be there. They could have at least let him put a shirt on or knocked him out before doing this.

"It's a _dress_," Bowman insisted. He was the closest to her, he might not have the pictures like Claude and Dias did but he had been the one to snap them, he had gotten a good enough look at it.

Ashton had managed to quiet himself by locking his jaw and forcing himself to gaze at his feet. He wished he would pass out from embarrassment like the others seemed to think he could if pushed enough, but it didn't work like that. Everything around him just got much more focused and his mind ran faster as it processed everything.

"_Darlings_," Celine was _quite_ irritated at the moment. She couldn't believe that the other men had meddled into her and Ashton's business the way they had or that they somehow thought that her generosity was out of some intent to embarrass him. _As if he needs help or prompting for that_. "I'm doing him a _favor_. If you had seen the absolute _rags_ he showed up in you would have done the same."

"I think we would have checked in with the dressmaker to make sure that knew she what she was supposed to be doing first." That's basically what Rose was, she almost never made men's clothing from what Bowman remembered. Maybe Ashton's sudden appearance had just thrown Celine for a loop, Bowman knew very well that his ex was a very together women despite her occasional flightiness. He hoped that was it almost, but now he was remembering that the two of them had been behaving a little unusually around each other before everyone split up and he had put it down to nerves at the time. He also hoped it wasn't because the way he figured it, Ashton and Celine together might resemble one of those explosions that occurred at the Neumann household so often unless something about Celine drew out Ashton's spine somehow; it was typically missing in action when it came to other people.

Precis was really starting to get tired of being around Bowman again. The presence of the others wasn't working like it normally did yet, or maybe they had just spent way, _way_ too much time together on the road already. "_Well, that's what we did! We checked it for her, that's why we went! It looked good!_"

"I wasn't there to see it in person," Claude was going to be the voice of reason this time it looked like, so he made sure to keep his voice calm as he spoke. "But by the way these pictures look, maybe she didn't really understand the instructions you gave her. I'm sure you explained it as well as you could, Celine, but this just...._It doesn't look right_. They're right, it looks like a dress. And it's shiny almost, and there's just a lot wrong with it in general. I don't think Ashton'll be able to fight in it very well." He leaned over Dias and held the photos out to her for her to take, letting his friend have his arm back. He was fairly confident that the urge to run had left him going by how loose he was now, if you didn't count his jaw, at least. "Maybe you should look at these, see if you see what we see."

Celine huffed as she took the photographs from Claude and Dias and started studying them. Her eyebrows and the sides of her mouth turned down slightly at the first one, and her displeasure grew with each new picture she studied. Rose was in _quite_ a bit of trouble. She had known that the fabric that she had selected would be off as it was, but apparently the large sample of it that she had looked at was so old that a good deal of the sheen had faded from it or Rose had panicked when she realized that there wasn't enough of the fabric she had selected and gone with the next best thing without consulting her first. There were other problems as well, ones that should have been avoided by the notes that she had given the seamstress. Still, as much as she wished to blame her for all of this, she really couldn't. Most of this was her fault, though she hated to admit it. "Ashton, darling. Have you seen these?"He hadn't left the house, she knew that much. He'd be wearing at least one shirt and a pair of socks and maybe shoes for one thing.

_Oh, no_. Now he needed to _talk_. He hoped he didn't say anything too terrible or awkward, he didn't really feel like having a fireball shot into his gut. Especially not at such _close range_. "Um. I...I saw one. That was it." It was probably best to speak as briefly as he could manage. At least that way there was less of a chance to say something that could get him in trouble.

"Come here." He might as well get a chance to really look at it, a chance to realize what she'd almost done to him. She might as well punish herself while she was at it, too. The others were here after all, between the other men's supportive presence and her subtle admission of guilt, he might just manage to be blunt enough to tell her what he really thought of all this.

"Um," Ashton licked his lips nervously with his sore tongue as he stepped forward and Dias moved to the side to let him pass, taking the photos from Celine's hand, nodding politely and thanking her as he did so. He looked down at them and blinked as he noticed that he was standing so close to her and holding the photos in such a way that his eyes were being drawn to two very prominent parts of her anatomy that he _really _shouldn't be looking at. He was relieved that his face was already as red as it could get as he cleared his throat and shifted to the side to actually _look at_ the pictures; the little smile on her face that he caught as he did so would have made it worse if it wasn't already as bad as it could be. Why did she have to wear such revealing clothing all the time? Even her pajamas were terrible about it, the one she was wearing now was horribly revealing despite being two-pieced and long-sleeved. The dragons were at least still outwardly behaving this time, he swore he would kill them if they did something right now. The draconic laughter and questions about his species' courting and mating rituals that were bouncing around inside his mind was bad enough as it was. He was going to punish them both later. He made sure to think that as loudly as he could and was quite pleased when it was suddenly quiet in his mind again.

Now he could finally turn his attention to the photos. "Ah, well." He was pretty sure she was expecting him to go on and list all the flaws that he saw in them but he really didn't ever want to embarrass her when they were alone, let alone in front of everyone else. "It's...pretty bad."

"Please explain it to me, darling." _My, my, my_. Bowman and Claude were giving her a very _interesting_ look, weren't they? They must have caught what had just happened as well. Bowman really should learn to mind his own one day, she might _help_ him and Claude with that later. She was very tempted to toss the two of them a wink as Ashton was currently distracted, but she decided against it fairly quickly. Then changed her mind and did it anyway. Oh, this was so much_ fun, _she _absolutely loved _that little start it had gotten out of both of them. She couldn't_ wait_ for when she could _really let loose_ on the man standing ever so slightly to her side now.

She wasn't going to take a simple answer, apparently. "The stitching's off. The shoulder seam isn't placed quite right for combat. If I were to take a long swing in it the shoulders would dig in and slow my movements, even if it is a bit of a loose fit like you said it was. It could even rip, it doesn't look like either a proper stitch or thread was used to handle that type of movement or force. I would have to see it in person." _He hated this_. He could _feel _Bowman and Claude staring at him now and he had _seen _the look that Dias had given him a second ago. "The sheen on the fabric would probably make me easier to spot during the day and make me easier to spot in the dark if there was a light source nearby, like if I was standing by a lake and the moon was full or something like that. The fabric might also be too weighty for me to move properly in, if it's as heavy as it looks it might not move quickly enough and get in my way. It doesn't look loose enough in the legs. If I fought while it was closed I might not be able to move as much as I want or need to unless I cut the fabric to cut a slit in the back and repaired it. Fighting with it open would create even more problems. There's more of course, but it's mostly esthetic or minor things, so I don't think I need to give them." He stopped and handed the photographs back to Celine, giving Claude a look that he hoped translated to 'drop it' before he turned his head to do the same to Bowman, noting as he did so that Rena was looking at him slyly as well. At least Precis was oblivious. _Like she always was when it came to him._

"Thank you." She accepted them, smiling at him slightly even though his attention wasn't on her. Celine was very proud and a little shocked by him at the moment considering the way he was giving everyone else that look of his. She was glad that it wasn't directed at her for once, she'd seen enough of it before whenever they quarreled. Like last night, for instance. " Do you think that there's anything salvageable there from what you can see? You're going to need to wear something as we travel, after all."

"No." He looked back at her, making very sure that his eyes were planted to hers as he spoke this time. "By the time everything that's wrong with it is removed there won't be enough left over to bother with it. I can just put my armor between a couple sweaters, that shouldn't hinder me too much."

"I'd really prefer replacing the old one considering that I'm the one that threw it out. I can't get back all the money that I paid Rose with, but-"

"_No. Celine, no._" Not this again. Why was everyone looking at him so strangely all of a sudden? He'd just gotten them to stop a second ago and now they were doing it again. Especially Bowman, he could feel his eyes more than anyone else's for some reason. "I told you last night, you've done enough. It's _fine._ You tried and it didn't turn out well exactly, but you did your best with what was given."

He'd just...interrupted her. She had to blink the shock from that out of her system as he spoke. And brilliant, now she was getting the look. At least now the others knew what she had to put up with sometimes. "We're going to be stopping in Cross tomorrow for passports to El anyway and once we make it to Clik we'll be stuck waiting for the next ship to depart, it's not as though there's much travel to El going on during this season that's not merchants and their wares or building supplies. I'm sure that we could pick up what's needed in Cross and have a proper tailor do it in Clik."

"That's fine, but I don't want _you_ paying for all of it again." He was still very focused on her eyes, but at least he didn't need to put effort into making sure that his gaze stayed there now.

Celine returned his expression and leaned on the doorframe, crossing her arms as she did so. The others were gone for her suddenly, none of them and the looks they were giving her and Ashton were registering at the moment. "Really, this is silly. I think I should be allowed to put whatever money I get back from Rose towards a proper replacement given all the fuss this has caused."

"I'm pretty sure just looking at the pictures that if you get back even fifteen percent of what she charged you then you'll be paying for most of a new one." He was scratching at the side of his jaw as he looked at her, realizing that he hadn't shaved yet today and trying to think of a solution to all this. She really had done too much, he didn't want to know what the bill for this had looked like. She wanted to help, though, and she'd be _upset_ if he didn't let her do _something_. He hated it when she got upset and the feeling was only worse when he knew that he was the cause of it. He'd let her help, that was fine, he just wasn't going to let her do as much as she wanted anymore. "We'll split the cost of the new materials and you can pay a quarter of the labor. That's it. That's the most I'm going to do. If you tell me 'no' now then I'm going to pay for the whole thing myself." At least that way he'd still come out paying for most of it.

He had that look to him now, the one he adopted when she had pushed him so much that he was about to turn himself deaf to any new argument she came up with. "All right, then." Celine didn't like this at all, but she was going to be doing the next set of crests in a few hours and having this argument reemerge in the middle of it wouldn't be good for either of them. "Half of the materials and a quarter of the labor. I'm going to hold you to that." She studied his shoulders and upper chest for a moment, trying not to let her eyes linger too much, wondering if the ink had settled enough yet and wanting to change the subject now that she'd lost another of their little spats. In front of _everyone_ this time. She didn't like the way he sounded as he spoke either, he didn't sound right thanks to the way he had absolutely _mangled_ his tongue earlier and she was starting to worry that she had made him talk so much that it was bleeding again, his voice was starting to sound a little wet to her and she hoped that was her imagination kicking in from concern. "Come here a second, I want to see if your crests have settled. Bowman, get his other side for me please, tell me if it looks wet or if it looks as though there are still any air pockets or if it appears rough in any way. It should be a similar color to mine and very smooth if it has taken and held properly now."

"Do you think it's really been long enough? It doesn't really feel like it's been four hours yet." Ashton was going to let her check his back and have Bowman handle his front, the other way would be _way_ too awkward for him right now. That and the way that she had studied him had made him feel a little...off, he supposed. He couldn't really describe it. "Claude, do you have your watch? How long has it been?" There, subject change accomplished. Way too late, but at least he'd_ done it_.

Claude had to blink at Ashton a few times before his request registered and Bowman started moving to take the bandages off. It felt like his brain had just died and then revived itself repeatedly in the past few minutes. How long has this been going on? Had he been visiting or writing Celine and neither of them told anyone? "It's been...a little over three and a half hours it looks like. I wasn't really watching the time when everything was going down." The two of them were going to take a walk after this. A long one.

"Really? No wonder I'm already more than halfway through that book."

"Which one are you reading?" Celine was trying to distract herself as she and Bowman unwound the bandages.

"Ah, I can't remember the title. The one by H.S. Brandle." The ice was starting to wear off. If Celine wasn't there he might have asked Ururun to breathe on his back. He hated it when they pulled his back muscles, he really did.

Bowman wanted to move on too. He was pretty sure he was in trouble with Celine now, maybe Ashton as well. He'd decided that no matter how much she got on his case about it, he was going to _warn the hell_ out of him about her later. He was certain that 'inexperienced' was the one word that could describe the younger brunet when it came to women and he was a little concerned. Celine didn't really have patience about certain things, she might forget to take things slowly and _break_ him one night. He shook his head, trying to get the mental pictures out. He really shouldn't have phrased it that way. Actually, he shouldn't have thought about that_ at all_. "You like it? I've got most of his stuff at home, I can lend more to you later." Some of the crests on the juncture of his neck and shoulder were starting to come in to view now and Bowman focused himself on studying those as he passed the gauze back to Celine.

"Yeah, I do. I forgot how much I liked to read to pass the time. I've been doing so much of it lately, but none of it's been for fun." Claude was looking at him in a manner that he couldn't really decipher all the way. He raised one of his eyebrows at him questioningly.

Claude nodded at Ashton and then jerked his head towards the stairs.

Uh-oh. Now he was _worried_. He really didn't know if he could handle the conversation he suspected Claude wanted to have with him right now.

"I'm glad to see that I picked out something that you enjoy. Precis, Rena? Did you finish shopping already? I don't see any bags."

"_No_. Dias left us and he's still got the money." Precis was staring very hard at the blue-haired swordsman.

Dias went around the others and started heading down the stairs, the girls following behind him. He still needed to _babysit_ apparently. Mostly Precis, Rena could take care of herself.

"Rena, wait moment," Celine called to the younger woman as she headed to the stairway. She passed her fingers over the new crests on the back of Ashton's neck and right shoulder lightly and smiled to herself when he jumped slightly. " Could you heal him quickly before you leave? Unless they don't look settled on your end, Bowman."

He was glad that he had succeeded in not looking at the other man's face when he started suddenly; he really didn't want to know what type of expression he was wearing when he had done that. She really needed to stop touching and looking at her prey like that when other people were around, if she kept this up the trip was going to be uncomfortable for Bowman, at least. He didn't feel like watching her pursue someone in that aggressive but quiet way of hers, he already knew what it looked like well enough. "Everything looks good here. I'm going to get some scissors to cut the rest off." He turned and retreated to the guest room to search through his bag. Very slowly.

"_So Rena can heal him now?_" _Please say yes_, Celine. His hands are suddenly itching; he wants his sword desperately. They can talk and spar. Mostly spar, though. He hoped Ashton hadn't been keeping up too much, living the quiet life with Rena in Arlia didn't present him much of a challenge and he'd kept himself up to snuff by beating on a dummy for the past two years or sparring with Dias when he was in town. It wasn't the same, though, he apparently needed Ashton to really let go, relax and have _fun_ with it. _Sparring. With Ashton._ _Yes_.

The look on Claude's face is making his thoughts so apparent that Ashton's becoming giddy himself. "You better have kept yourself in shape."

"Watch me. I'll have you_ down on the ground and begging _in five-seconds."

"Claude, darling, I don't quite think you thought that through very well before you said it." If they were going to start acting like _this_ again then Celine was going to tease them for it. No matter how much they aged, men never really grew up, it seemed. "Since everything seems fine, yes. Rena, please heal Ashton the rest of the way up so the boys here can go play with each other again. With their _swords_."

Claude moved away slightly to get out of Rena's range if she decided to slap him. She was close enough that she could if she wanted to now that she was healing Ashton. "You're just _jealous_ that I get to _play _with_ his sword_." Yeah, so Ashton had two, but he was pretty sure that he knew _exactly_ what Celine's interest in his friend was now and maybe the teasing would get it through Ashton's thick skull as well. Celine would be able to bring him out of his shell more and they'd be pretty interesting together in general, Claude thought. Especially since he apparently stood up to her like that fairly often, Celine hadn't seemed shocked like the rest of them had been when he'd done it.

Rena wanted to smack Claude for that, but she was too busy trying not to laugh too loudly as Ashton blushed heavily and did his impersonation of a fish out of water and gasping for air. She was using a bit more of her power on him than she really needed to, but she wanted to make sure he was fully mended and it also seemed to energize people a little when she overdid it. She might beg off helping Precis shop or try to rush the other girl a little, it had been a long time since she'd seen them spar together and it was always entertaining given the very different styles they had and the way they both moved. It had become one of the traditional ways that they entertained everyone when they made camp for the night after the heraldic swordsman had joined them, all the more battle oriented members of their party would have matches and practice against one another if they weren't too tired from fighting all day.

Claude was lucky that Ashton was in her way, Celine wanted _very badly_ to send a fireball in his direction for that. Really, that had been a rather_ tasteless_ and _rude_ thing to say to a lady. Besides, she wasn't going to do anything other than nudge him a bit like she had started doing on Nede after she noticed that his crush on Precis was fading until after the beasts on his back were gone. They were far too curious for her tastes and they'd distract her from things she'd _much_ rather not be distracted from, she was _quite sure of that_. She calmed herself by tracing the outline of Ashton's new crests with the tip of one finger and watched, smiling to herself as he shuddered under her touch and they came into themselves as Rena's powers seemed to speed up the process further. "Rena, darling, I might call you in for a bit when I'm working on his crests again later tonight. Your powers seem to be speeding up the settling process and I'd like to know just how soon they would start to work if the ink were fresher. It might be a bit of a long night for us, I'm sorry to say."

"I've got the scissors." Yeah, he was going to _hate_ this. Celine was a very, _very_ physically affectionate person and Ashton was sensitive and ticklish and wasn't used to being touched often due to the dragons or maybe a lack of physical affection growing up, he wasn't sure. He was thankful that the heraldic swordsman had quickly ducked his head the way he had when Celine started touching him again. It at least proved one thing to him; he was over Celine, he wasn't uncomfortable because he was jealous, just because it was the two of them. Most of their group was oddly protective of Ashton due to his bad luck and innocent air, and as for her it was just their history and knowing what type of ride the other man had in store for him when she finally pounced on him. He was still going to warn him and talk to her, though.

"Th-thank you, Bowman." Ashton really wished that Celine would_ stop touching_ _him like_ _that_, between her and Rena's magics he was starting to feel tingly and almost floaty. He guessed that ducking his head hadn't worked so he shook his head while keeping it down. "Are you sure that would be safe?"

"No problem. Are you using enough of your powers to take care of his back too? He said that the dragons pulled some of his muscles while everything was going on in there." He cut through the remaining strips quickly and pulled them away, not knowing why he had asked that, Bowman didn't want to stay in the hallway.

"Ashton, your back is hurt _too_? Does it feel okay yet? I can keep going to make sure."

"It should be fine. Crests get put in half completed or in sections all the time, you know that. Why didn't you mention that your back was injured?"

He wished that Bowman hadn't said anything, now Rena and Celine were dog piling him. "_I'm sorry_. I just didn't want to bother or worry everyone, I figured I'd done enough of that already. It feels normal now, maybe better. Celine did you tell them about the...?" Ashton pointed to the dragons and his still bowed head, not really knowing how to describe everything that went on between he and the demons succinctly.

"Yes, I told them everything and explained to them why you reacted the way you did earlier today. Really, darling, you best tell us next time it happens. Rena might not be able to heal you right away but I could have at least gotten a cold compress for you before I discussed everything with them." He couldn't see it, but she was shaking her head at him as she moved her hand away from him. It wasn't to acquiesce to his nonverbal request, it was to fold her arms about herself as she glared at the back of his head. She really was going to need to work on his self confidence; most of the time she didn't mind it too much as she was very fond of his humbleness and included of it as a facet of his charms, but being in pain and not telling anyone because he thought he would be a burden somehow was absolutely _ridiculous_.

"I told you the first time I saw you limping around after they did that, the second it happens I want you to_ tell _me. I'm pretty sure that it's just bad for your back in general if it happens enough." Rena was looking up at him through his hair to give him a displeased look as she pulled her hands away to stop healing him. Ashton hadn't become quite the brother figure that Dias was for her, but she still cared for him in almost the same way. It really bothered her that he had gone through everything he had in the past two years and didn't come get them. It wasn't like her, Claude, and most of the others wouldn't have dropped everything and helped him search for an exorcism method to remove the dragons if they had known how bad it really was. If they had known before everyone split up they probably would have just gone searching again without even taking a break or celebrating first.

"You're a real _idiot_ sometimes, you know that?" There, that was Claude's thoughts on the subject.

"Pretty much. Rena's right by the way, if it happens too much the bones in your spine will start to shift and press on your spinal column as the disks between the vertebrae start morphing and deteriorating from the uneven support that the muscles provide as they weaken. It ranges from uncomfortable to excruciating when that starts happening. I'm not sure if Rena's magics would fix that, I'm pretty sure you'd need surgery for it and that is _far_ too experimental right now for me to recommend it, especially considering that if something goes wrong you'd probably be paralyzed from wherever the injury is down." It took every ounce self-control he possessed to not tack on '_and I don't think Celine would like that_,' to the end of that sentence, but he managed it. He was a little proud of himself for that. He also realized that since Claude and Ashton were going to go spar after this he could talk to Celine about his concerns over this seemingly predatory behavior of hers towards the younger man. If it took too long they could argue about it in the middle of town while she took care of Rose and the dress.

Great, now he was getting dog piled by everybody that was still upstairs. "I said I was sorry. _I am_. I'll tell you about it as soon as it happens next time, Rena, _I promise_." At least Celine had gotten the hint and taken her hands away, after the verbal beat down he had just gotten he was pretty sure he could look everyone in the face again. "So, are we going to the forest or outside town?" Save him, Claude, please?

"Eh, outside town. It's been way too long, I don't want to have to deal with maneuvering around the trees and looking out for rocks and roots." Like Claude was going to let him pull the stuff he normally pulled while they were in _forests_. Ashton was an even bigger pain in the ass to fight in that type of terrain, the more places he had to hide and obstacles there were between him and his opponents the faster and harder they went down. Plus, it was a lot harder to see just what heraldry he might be getting ready to pull out of his ass. It was a bit difficult to notice a change in the concentration of leaves on the ground when there were so many of them already, and by the time you did it was_ way _too late and he was_ on _you. Claude turned and went back into the guest room, Ashton nipping at his heels as he went.

"You two have fun, I'm going to go catch up with Dias and Precis. Don't be surprised if you see me watching later!" Rena waved at the two as they entered their destination to get ready and ran down the stairs to catch up with the rest of her little group.

Bowman supposed that he might as well take a chance since they were alone now and looked at Celine in a considering manner. "You got a minute to talk?"

"I need to get dressed and head over to Rose's, Bowman. I'm not quite sure I have time to chat right now." She knew what he was plotting, she knew him too well not to.

"Look, we're going to talk about this sooner or later, it might as well be now. I'll stand in a corner while you get dressed if you want me to." _Come on, Celine, don't be stubborn._ He really wants to get this done and over with just so it would stop bothering him so much.

He better. She'd hit him with a fireball if he didn't. "_Fine_, come on in. Let's keep our voices down as we are now, though, shall we?"

_I didn't say which way I'd be turned_. Still, he really did want to talk about this so he'd let his imagination run wild and not let his eyes check for confirmation. He stepped into her room and looked around before selecting the corner by her bed and making his way to it, waiting to hear the door close. He thought about planning out what to say as he stood there looking at two pink walls meet and decided that if he sounded too rehearsed she would know instantly that he had been planning this almost since he had arrived and be furious with him. He also decided that he had a fierce hatred of all things pink and that if the baby Nineh was carrying was a girl she was getting the walls of her room painted either yellow or purple. "So, _Ashton_, huh?" he began after hearing the click of the lock being turned. "When did this happen? Back in Nede? I'm pretty sure I saw you two acting a little differently before we faced the Ten Wise Men, so it had to be sometime before that."

Celine was grateful that she had worn her panties and bra under her pajamas for her nap, it would make this much less awkward for her. "Yes, it was. I didn't realize I cared for him in that way before I saw the way he reacted to Precis. I didn't do anything out of respect for that until I noticed that his little crush had faded." She sighed as she opened her closet's door and started scanning the contents for what she wanted to wear for the rest of the day. Celine needed to be a little more choosey about this, she was most likely going to be putting Ashton's crest in later in the clothing she decided on now. "I hate to admit it but I didn't really do anything very forward at that point due to the dragons' presence and I'm still not going to do anything but try to put the idea of something in his head until they're removed. I know it's terribly shallow of me, but the idea of always being watched like that disturbs me, even if they are an increasingly larger part of him."

He was pretty sure she'd already '_put some ideas in his head._' "Naw, I'd be put off too. It's just _weird_. At least they don't hate you like they hate me, though." He was making faces at the corner as he spoke, because really, it _was_ weird. He was trying not to imagine what it must be like for the topic of their conversation to live on a day-to-day basis; never having any privacy whatsoever. Bowman didn't think he'd ever be able to masturbate again for one thing....Actually, that might explain why Ashton avoided talking about raunchy or explicit things with the other guys and tried to discourage it so much, he realized. It'd be really difficult not being able to release all the things that tended to accumulate inside a man's mind on a daily basis and ignore all of those urges. _Holy shit, he's been living like a monk for the past three years. He must have the most amazing wet dreams_, the pharmacist thought to himself. All this flirting and touching that she's been doing must be making his nights very interesting.

She shook her head at him, not caring if he couldn't see it as she selected a shirt, a sweater and a pair of pants and examined them together to make sure that she liked the combination. "Darling, they don't hate you. They dislike the way you _poke_ at them. Gyoro might be upset with you because by his reasoning, you're the one that put all of them in pain like that and got him in trouble with Ashton. Regardless, I'm certain that if the dragons hated you then you wouldn't be around anymore; Ashton hadn't been able to control them the way he can now when we were all traveling together and they certainly had _ample_ opportunity for it." Really, why did he have such a silly notion? As if the dragons would have really cared one way or another if Ashton would have been angry back then if they had killed the pharmacist behind her. They had the power in their 'relationship' with their host at that point.

"That's true, I guess. So, why him? You do realize what you're getting into right? I'm pretty sure the guy's never even been _kissed_ before." He almost looked over his shoulder at that point just due to habit. He realized what he was doing, though, and turned his head around. _Damn_, but that was a lot of pink to look at.

Now she was displaying one of her rare blushes. She was glad that Bowman was looking the other way. "His inexperience doesn't bother me in the least. I know very well that if anything happens I'll have to go slowly and not push him too much most likely but....You're probably not going to like hearing this, but I don't _dislike_ the idea of being his 'teacher,' as it were. To be honest, some silly part of me is actually _looking forward_ to it." She put the clothing that she had selected to the side and took her shirt off and hung it on its hanger. The pajama bottoms were next, but she was going to put the shirt on first.

"_Yeah, that's a bit much_. Thanks for all those pictures in my head now. I really could have done without _those_." Bowman was forcibly closing his eyes now to black out all the images swirling in his head.

Celine came very close to rolling her eyes before she stopped herself. She stared down at the shirt in her hands and she tried to answer his other question. "You asked. As for the why, I just_ like _the man. He's attractive and very sweet, down to earth if a bit pessimistic about himself, we have things in common but not so much that it's boring, I know him very well but he always manages to surprise me in very _pleasant_ ways, he stands up to me without being rude about it excepting the incident in the hall just now and even that wasn't bad by any _sane_ standards, has excellent manners, is interesting to talk to and carries on a conversation very well once he gets settled in and no _barrels_ are around." She did roll her eyes at that one. It was a _terrible_ way to express oneself, but sometimes there were no other expressions, gestures or words that fit the situation as well. "I find him very charming, he's incredibly humble especially considering the way that most warriors are so full of themselves, and....I just care very _deeply_ for him Bowman, I can't really put a 'why' to it. I can list _all of these things and more_, but....It's just something I feel and have felt for a very long time." She shook her head at herself and put the shirt on, not believing all the little things that were popping in to her head right now. She knew there were a lot, but...well, not that many. Now she knew why she had been relieved in some odd way as the months and then years passed and Ashton never showed up at anyone's door; this was a bit much to handle. It was suddenly a bit _frightening_ as well.

"You're in love with him," he stated, nodding to himself. It had to happen sooner or later, at least she'd chosen a good guy for it. He probably wasn't going to be warning Ashton away from her now. He was sure that he would make her a very happy woman once he was 'settled in' as she put it. "Okay, when you put it like that I can see why. You two do seem suited pretty damn well for each other now that I really think about it and start listing things in my head. He's a good guy, I know I'll never have to worry about the way he's treating you at least, he's too gentle and loyal to pull any of _that shit_....Hell, he wouldn't even go looking at girls with Claude and I because he didn't want to offend anybody and thought it was wrong. So, one last question and I'm out of your hair for the day."

She smiled and took her pajama bottoms off. If there was only one question left then she needed to finish getting dressed quickly. "I'm glad you approve. What is it?"

He couldn't _believe_ he was going to ask this one. "Need any help?"

She had to stop herself at that and look over at him, a very warm smile crossing her face as she took in the back of him. "_Oh, Bowman_, I can't _believe _sometimes how _incredibly sweet_ you are to me still, but...." She bit her lip lightly as she looked to the pants in her hands and felt her cheeks grow warm again. This was such an _exceptionally_ different day. "I, well....Yes, I suppose there is something you can help me with. It would be nice to_ know_ if there's something there on his end; that I'm not pursuing him when doesn't want me to and I have no chance regardless of what I do."

He didn't care if she couldn't see it, he still threw a hand in the air dismissively at her and made a face at the pink that surrounded him. "Pfft. That's....You're_ crazy_, of course there's something there. I'm not even going on about _lust_ here, it's something other than that. His best friend in the world isn't that much farther away from here from where he apparently came from, there's no other reason he wouldn't go to Arlia instead of here first."

"The dragons are the ones that brought him here. They let him take control once and he tried to turn back." She was worrying at her lip as she put her pants on.

"Oh. Seriously? _That's nice_." It made sense, though. Ashton was the type to think that he would be a burden to anyone if he asked for anything. He had demonstrated that again and admitted to it in his own way out in the hallway just now. Bowman shook his head and closed his eyes, his hands going to his hips and settling there as he spoke. "Still, it doesn't change what I said. There's something there, something other and _more_ than that crush he had on Precis. Maybe the dragons were just acting on that too, they know him so damn well now that they're merged the way they are. I never noticed it before breakfast and out there in the hall right now, Celine, but there's something different there when he _looks _at you, the way he _acts _around you. I'm pretty sure Rena's like a little sister to him or close to it, and he still seems more comfortable and..._open_ when he's around you, he's stronger somehow, maybe he's just more _himself_. Whatever it is, he changes when you're close to him. I've never seen him stand up to anyone the way he did you just now; all of us guys have had our fights, but that was different than anything_ I've ever seen from him_." Yeah, he wasn't going to tell her about the time that he ran a hand through the hotel wall because Ashton ducked the punch he had thrown at him. They had been arguing about the dragons again, _of course_.

She studied him intently as she buttoned her pants. "Do you really think so?"

"Yeah. I know so." Now he was nodding to the corner, he and it seemed to be becoming _good_ friends as he stood there. He wished it would change color on him. He got the feeling that her room hadn't been repainted in at least ten years, Celine was a bit too sophisticated anymore to surround herself with one color like this. "Reading people is one of my strong suits, remember? If you want me to nudge Claude into prying a bit I will, but I don't think I need to. I'm pretty sure he knows what's going on now as well and is going to do a little _poking and prodding_ around himself sooner or later. You've probably got two accomplices in him and Rena already, they'll definitely be on him now that they've picked up that the two of you like each other at the very least."

She reached for the sweater and pulled it over her head quickly. She'd have to do her hair again. "Maybe you could ask him about it and give me a report on what he says. I hate to say it, but I wouldn't feel comfortable asking or hearing about it from Claude or Rena. I much prefer it be you, I know that you won't lie to me or downplay anything to spare my feelings like they might. You can turn around now, by the way."

"You got it." He turned around to look at her and whistled. "Man, maybe when you finally jump him you should wear that."

He was barely able to duck the brush that she threw at him.

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Author's Note: ....Yeah, so this is apparently going to be a bit of a romance story now. Which I'm not exactly comfortable with, I've never tried to seriously write that genre before. I honestly didn't mean for it to happen, it just occurred as I was writing spontaneously the past few nights no matter how much I deleted and tried to pull the story back away from it. I can't find the will to scrap everything and start over right now, I've done that enough this week. Hopefully I can work it out so that it doesn't seem incredibly awkward and at least somewhat real, otherwise I might decide to go back and rewrite the entire thing to cleanse the story of it. Also, I'm almost disturbed by the way my interpretation of several of these characters are just running away from me as I type (guess which ones those are, you've probably caught it as you read). I'd always thought that it was a silly excuse for wish fulfillment on the part of the author, but this past week has proven me very wrong.


	6. Chapter 5

Summary: The boys wake up in the morning to find an unexpected visitor with them and decide to do something very predictable. Precis makes a friend before their guest leaves and the group makes it to Cross, where they realize that they aren't as subtle as they think they are.

Warning: The characters are getting away from me again. You know that thing Bowman went on about towards the end of the last chapter? That gets referenced a few times (Thanks, *******! I had ever so much fun reeling you back in and failing to delete all of it because it's so damn funny to me!) and so is a naughty thing that consenting teenagers/adults can do to one another if they know their way around well enough. I might be bumping this up to the M rating if this keeps up, I'm fairly sure that the ritual will be skirting the edge of it anyway.

Author's Note: Yeah, I'm poking at Celine a little toward the beginning of this chapter just to get back at her for what she did to me last time. Being mad at fictional characters is fun. Also, I'm not a fan of flowery, saccharine romances, so don't be expecting that brand of the genre from here out. **Guess who realized that they were bumping the story every time they edited something? Yup, I'm going to stop that now. **From now on I'll only put my edits through when I'm adding new chapters. Sorry about that, I don't have a beta reader and this is the first time I've ever posted writings online or used this site before. I hope I didn't bother too many people while I was being oblivious and obsessive compulsive.

Disclaimer: Square-Enix. Squenix. They own it, I don't and have nowhere near as much money as they do. There, I think that just about covers it.

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Claude and Dias had awoken the next morning to find Ururun staring at them intently, his head cocked to the side. In_ Ashton's _body. Sitting there, cross-legged on top of the dresser. He had taken the pants off that his host had been put to bed wearing and left them there, leaving only a pair of boxers on the body he was now fully in possession of. They almost hadn't noticed, they'd just thought that he had woken up and zoned out in an unusual place as he waited for them to wake up. It had been the eyes that did it; they were a too real, almost glassy shade of blue-grey that was so close to the color of the surface of a frozen lake that it would have been hard to tell the difference other than they fact that they _glowed_. It hadn't taken more than a few repeated calls of Bowman's name to get him up and off the floor, and then they found themselves just staring at the dragon, at Ashton.

Bowman had been the first to talk to the demon-cum-man, looking a little apprehensive to be directly speaking to one of the demonic brothers. "What are you doing? Where's Ashton?"

Ururun slowly shifted his gaze from Claude to the pharmacist. "Ashton is sleeping still. I am waiting for him to awaken. I cannot fully transfer this part of my consciousness back to where it belongs until he has awoken or we fear that his body and mind may become disconnected from one another. I had considered going outside or moving to the window as I am far too warm for my liking, but I did not wish to wake any of you and I know how intolerant your kind is to the elements and I do not wish harm on him or for him to be displeased with me once he awakes."

Claude was frowning slightly; he'd never really talked to the dragons before. He'd heard them converse with Xine, but other than that they had taken over their host's body only when they deemed it necessary, like when a they were in a battle that was too close or heated for their tastes. The demons had never bothered speaking to any of them before. "So, is there any way for us to wake him up?" He almost wished he hadn't spoken, the dragon turned to look at him again with a very interested look on Ashton's face as he talked and nodded along with his words, a very soft, low growl escaping from Ashton's throat as he did so. Claude suddenly realized that he had never really noticed just how much Ashton blinked before, the dragon certainly wasn't averaging less than once every fifteen or so seconds, it seemed.

"None that we are aware of. Perhaps you know of some methods that we do not as you are not from this world. When this occurs my other and I cannot rouse his mind and we must wait for him to be fully rested and drift back to consciousness on his own. Do you have any ways that you know are not known to our world? We would be very interested in trying them." The dragon actually blinked a few times in quick succession, Ashton's gaze going slightly unfocused as he did so and gave a little growl again before turning back to Bowman. "My other would like to know whether if he were to apologize for his actions yesterday if you would tell Ashton so. Our host has been punishing him since his recollections became clear to him, and 'Gyoro' would like to be able to move from the small space he is confined in. I would appreciate it as well if you would do so, he does not take kindly to being singled out in such a manner and has been trying to find ways in which to make me join him."

Bowman couldn't _not_ laugh at that. "You're kidding, right?" That's pretty funny to him; him being almost attacked by Gyoro had managed to make Ashton so pissed off that he had apparently put one of the demon dragon brothers in _solitary confinement _or _time_ _out_ or whatever for about twenty or eighteen damned hours. He almost felt all warm and tingly, he didn't know that the other man cared for him so much. The dragon was giving him a blank look, though, so he might as well answer him no matter how badly he was chuckling through it. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. I accept your brother's apology. I'll be sure to tell Ashton about it the second he wakes up." He wondered if he should go ahead and use Ururun to give a status report on Ashton's feelings for Celine, that would be way more direct than anything Claude could ever manage to pull from him. Maybe he should go get her and bring her up for this, she could get the news right from the dragon's mouth, as it were.

"Ururun. If I ask you something about Ashton could you tell me the truth about whatever it is that I ask you about?" Oh, boy. Claude just had the same idea that Bowman did, apparently.

Dias shook his head to no one in particular at the sudden turn of events, coming to the sudden realization yet again for what must be the hundredth time that the heraldic swordsman really did have the worst luck in the world. He wondered if the demon would agree to answer and just how big of a gossip Ururun would prove to be if he did.

"If you were not to tell him that I was the one that supplied you with the information, then yes. Though I must caution you, our understanding of certain emotions and other motivations that beings of your nature possess is lacking in some regards according to Ashton. He has told us this repeatedly."

He was going to ignore that. Claude was certain that Ashton would tell them that they didn't 'get' something just to avoid topics he found uncomfortable. Gyoro and Ururun were probably more on the mark than they realized when it came to their host. They were apparently listening to his thoughts constantly, maybe even feeling his emotions too, after all. "What do you think is going on between Ashton and Celine?"

"We would both think it is rather obvious that the two of them are involved in one of your kind's overlong and unnecessarily complex courtship rituals. We continually question him as to when the conditions for mating have been met but he becomes very agitated when we ask him such things and will not answer any of our questions concerning matters of such a nature."

Oh, this was too, too good, he was pretty sure Dias had just let out an amused snort behind him. "Bowman, go get Celine."

Claude didn't even have to tell him that, his body had been straining to move the second the word 'mating' had left 'Ashton''s mouth. "You don't gotta tell me twice." The pharmacist was out the doorway before he even finished that sentence.

"Ururun," Claude called the dragon's name to get his eyes back on him; he had followed Bowman with his eyes and eventually his head all the way out the room. "I need you to put Ashton's pants back on him. I'll get you a cup of cold water or ice if it will make you feel better if you do. I also want to ask you a favor. When Bowman comes back up, he's going to bring Celine with him, like you just heard. When she gets here can you tell her what you just told us and anything else you can about what Ashton thinks and how he feels about her? I don't know if you've noticed or not, but your host is very inexperienced when it comes to 'courting rituals' and things like that. If you do this for him you might speed things up for them." He really couldn't tell whether he was the best or the worst best friend ever for this, but he did know that he wanted Ashton to be happy and if this helped settle a few things then he really wasn't going to hesitate to do it.

Ururun responded with a nod and the possessed body of his best friend walked over to the bed they had placed him in last night and dressed itself before resettling on the dresser again and looking back to him. "I do not require water or ice to do this. The relief that it would give me would not register correctly while I am inhabiting Ashton's body in such a manner."

Claude scratched the back of his head. "Ah, sorry." Here he had thought he was dangling a carrot the size of house at the demon and he was really doing it for the benefit of his host. "You....The two of you really care about him, don't you?"

"Of course," Ururun was cocking his head again. "He is our balance. He has made us a trinity."

Claude kind of got that even though he blinked at Ururun as he heard Dias shifting on the bed behind him again, probably to give the dragon one of his _'start making sense'_ looks. Actually, that was wishful thinking and he knew it, Dias probably got that better than he just did, he might ask for his interpretation of that to see if they line up later. "If you care about him so much, why are you agreeing to this? If we hadn't been so lucky to have two blood donors out of the four actual candidates we have here, Ashton could have died if you all went through with this." Claude knew Bowman had tested him and Rena just to make them feel better; he wasn't that dense. "And the two of you can't really be looking forward to _being like us_ all of a sudden. It's going to be _very hard_ on you, _you know that, right?_"

"It may be difficult for us to adapt to our new selves and we will die if we fail to meet the obligations forced upon us by these crests, but if we expire as mortals at least we do so knowing that we have left him whole in doing so. My other and I have become increasingly concerned that the unexpected changes in our possession of him that have resulted in this very surprising reversal of power between us will not last. We fear that if this possible process repeats upon itself and as he is one mind against two, that he will be driven to madness and then lost as he is slowly absorbed into us. You creatures value your perceptions of self and the power of your individuality and independence above almost all else, to allow such a thing to happen would surely be what amounts to a disgraceful death for him."

Dias would admit that he was openly staring at Ururun now. He didn't quite know why, but he had never considered that the dragons could care for Ashton beyond as a mode of survival and transport. It was also a bit shocking to him that their reasoning for the actions they were taking were motivated by such a deep understanding of 'you creatures' as he had just put it. He didn't know why, but he was fairly certain now that he could tolerate or maybe even respect at least one of the demon dragons once they were in their human forms and he understood why their behavior towards him had been so abnormal lately.

"That's..." Claude was feeling very tongue-tied at the moment. It's not very often that you hear one of a pair of demons admit they consider a human to be a part of themselves and then that they are willing to put their lives at risk for said mortal's psyche and honor of all things. "The two of you are really good friends." He wished that he could say something less pithy than that, but it seemed that Ururun was going to start breaking his brain like Ashton and Celine had yesterday in the hallway. "Okay, so....When Ashton starts waking up. When that happens...you'll know, right?"

"His mind stirs in a way that is very obvious to us, yes. He does not awaken easily when we are in this state, but we will feel it well ahead of time before he begins to perceive what is occurring. If your question is will he be aware that we are speaking to either you or Celine when he begins to stir then the answer is no. There will be ample time before that occurs."

Claude had a feeling that it would take him some time to get used to the way that Ururun spoke with such a lack of inflection and seemingly no movement, it reminded him of when Ashton had fallen into that trance of his while Celine was putting the crests on him. He was relieved that they weren't going to get caught doing this. "Well, that's good...." Claude trailed off as he noticed the shadows in the hallway move and heard soft footsteps in the silence that had fallen over them. "That's Bowman and Celine."

Ururun had turned his head to consider the entryway once Claude had trailed off, but he looked back when the men behind him began shifting and pulling themselves from their beds. "Am I to leave the room as well?"

Claude turned back to Ururun as Dias passed him and headed out to the hall. "No, you stay here. She's going to come in and either me or Bowman might be with her, but you just stay right here." He waited for the dragon to nod his understanding before making his way out of the guest room.

"–ant to know, right? I'm pretty sure that this is as good as it gets." Bowman was speaking in a volume that was just shy of a whisper as Dias passed them by to head down the stairs. "They're connected to each other mentally, you told us that yesterday. If Ururun doesn't know how he feels, then I have no clue how else we're going to get a straight answer."

Celine was looking very bedraggled, Claude thought. He had known that they had spent hours experimenting with Rena's magics and the crest ink, but he'd been hoping that it had been less difficult for her this time. He guessed it hadn't been judging by the way she looked. "Hey."

"The two of you are_ absolutely terrible_, at least Dias had the_ decency_ to let Ururun_ be_. I know that he wasn't involved in this. This has to be the idea of one of the two of _you_." Celine was giving Claude a fairly ill-tempered look as she spat that at him, her robe gathered about her very tightly.

"Celine, I just asked. He's the one that agreed to it. He didn't have to if he didn't want to, it's not like any of us but Ashton can make them do anything." Claude was pretty sure that she was just acting out and trying not to look as nervous or scared as she might be feeling at the moment. Which was weird just because it was _Celine_ and he'd never seen her look like that before. It was a good thing that Bowman had taken him and Rena aside last night while she was getting Ashton ready to put the crests in and told them about what was going on or he would think that she was possessed along with him. "Ururun's the calm, curious, remote one, you know that. Ashton's told us that a million times already. It's not like he's going to do anything but just talk, the only thing he might do is question you to death. He nearly put me to sleep in there, I've heard Noel talk more energetically after just waking up than he did and it looks like he's been up for awhile."

Celine narrowed her eyes at him so much he could barely tell her eyes were open at all. "That is not the point."

"Celine,_ I'm getting to the point that I don't care what your point is!_ You said that you were scared the other night that you didn't have a chance with Ashton, I told you that I thought you did, I know Rena told you that she thought you did too because_ she told me before she went to bed!_" Bowman swung his arm dramatically to the guest room entrance, obviously growing very frustrated with her. "You don't seem to really believe either of us apparently and now you're_ twiddling your damn thumbs_ over this while one of the two beings in the world with a _direct line into the guy's head_ is sitting on a dresser in there and _waiting to answer your questions!_"

"I just..." She looked away to the shadows toward the bathroom. "This is a bit much." Celine blinked at the darkness before turning her gaze back to Bowman. "He's _sitting_ on the dresser?" The mage was going to have to teach the dragons how to behave while they were indoors, apparently their host hadn't been able to yet.

Bowman nodded energetically and gestured frantically in the air as he ranted at her, ignoring her question. "_We get that, we all do._ I felt it with Nineh, I'm sure Claude here and Rena felt the same way before they figured it all out too. It's_ normal_ to be scared about this stuff the first time it happens to you if you don't know or aren't sure. It's pretty damn scary even if you do know and it's the second or the third or the fourth time because _it's just so damn strong and just terrifying to know that all of a sudden there's so much of you wrapped up in someone else and you have no control over it at all or what they do with that_, we get it. You've got an opportunity here that thousands of people _would sell their souls for!_" He was very close to pulling his hair out at this point, he was sure of it.

"He's right Celine, I was scared to death before I figured out that Rena loved me too. I'm pretty sure she was the same way. Do you want a clue about what Ururun's probably going to tell you once you get in there? Because we've already asked him in a really weird way."

Celine stared at Claude for a few seconds before hiding her face in her hands. "Oh, Tria, what did the two of you do?"

"Claude asked him what they thought was going on between you two." Bowman was frustrated with her enough to want to drag this little reveal of theirs out. He wondered what she'd do when she heard.

As if she could ever resist bait like that, really. They were being cruel by not telling her. "....And? I can't believe that the two of you are just going to stand there and make me ask you." She was still hiding behind her hands, because really, this was mortifying. It seemed as though the entire house knew about this except maybe Precis and of course Ashton. She shouldn't have handed the photos to him at that angle, it wasn't as if she hadn't known what would happen. And the way she flirted with him so much in front of them yesterday, she really did need her head examined after that. What in the world had she been thinking? Maybe she should begin avoiding him for an hour or so after she woke up, she obviously hadn't been thinking clearly at the time.

Claude smiled and shook his head, because really, Ururun had a very strange way of putting it. "Both of them think that the two of you are involved in a bizarre courting ritual and are wondering when the two of you will finally mate." It took some restraint on his part not to start laughing as he said that; he swore it sounded even stranger coming from his own mouth than the dragon's.

"Well, not while the two of them are around, that's for certain. Really, as if I'd give them a _free show_." Celine was smiling so hard behind her hands that her face hurt. She was suddenly filled with that nervous energy like she had the other night while she'd been arguing with Ashton. She disliked it very much right now as she was standing and the only thing that she could think to do with it would be to sway from side to side like a schoolgirl, and she definitely wasn't going to be doing _that_.

"Well, are you going to_ get in there_ or _what_? It's not like he told Claude that just because he felt like it." He didn't care if he had to pick her up and carry her over the threshold of that entryway while she screamed loud enough to wake the rest of Mars, she was going to wind up in that room with Ururun and he didn't care if she just sat there and stared at him. He'd committed himself to helping her with this, if it came to it he'd go in there with her and question the demon for her.

"All right," Celine forced the smile from her lips and removed the hands from her face, having to stop herself from flapping her arms at her side like a bird as she did so, still not able to open her eyes for some reason. She was going to sit on the nearest thing she could and bounce her leg until this sudden energy finally ran dry. Really, when did she become so ridiculous? What a silly question, she knew the answer to that; it was the second that man had shown up on her doorstep the way he had and instantly started winding her up with worry. She almost wished that Gyoro and Ururun had seen him to Arlia, at least that way she would have had plenty of time to prepare herself before she laid eyes on him and he would have been cleaned up and it wouldn't have been so absolutely heart wrenching to look at him as haggard and exhausted as he'd so obviously been in those tattered clothes of his and that messy, too-long hair and that stubble that was approaching a beard he hadn't shaved for so long. It was all his and the dragons' fault, really. She had been perfectly fine before he showed up, she had even begun entertaining the notion that all of these feelings were finally starting to fade and then....She was going to_ get him_ one day for everything he's done to her. _All of it._ _That silly little crush on Precis, too._ Every little thing that he had ever done that caused her the slightest discomfort. Like when they were waiting for the Arms Tournament to begin for Claude and he helped her bring her shopping bags back to her room after seeing her outside of the inn struggling with them and he had placed one of the bags by the side of her bed a bit awkwardly and she had tripped herself on it and his hand had accidentally grazed her right breast as he caught her to keep her from falling and then he spent the next hour red-faced and apologizing. All of it. Wait. Why did she remember so much of that? _Oh, don't tell me I did that on-_

"...Do you want company?" Claude asked when she didn't really move. She had frozen herself in a rather silly position and then stood there for a few seconds. It was obvious enough that she was lost in thought.

"Celine," Bowman chuckled, "get moving before I move you." She still didn't respond, so he laid a palm against the small of her back and pushed her forward.

"_Ah!_" Surprised at the gently shove that she had just been given, the mage stumbled a bit before regaining herself and continuing forward, knowing better than to stop again given the way her thoughts were racing at the moment. "Thank you, boys, I think I'll be fine now." Oh, thank Tria for Bowman Jean and Claude Kenni, if they hadn't just done that she would have been stuck there for all eternity going on and on in her head.

Claude watched her enter the guest room, a bit wide eyed. "Wow."

"Yeah," Bowman muttered, shaking his head as he did so.

"Y'know, when you told me last night I thought you were exaggerating, but....We're _really _gonna have to get started on pulling Ashton's _head _out of his_ ass_ now." He wished that he had his jacket on or that his sleeping pants had pockets in them, he really wanted to shove his hands somewhere at the moment.

"You see it too, huh?" The pharmacist turned and started to make his way downstairs.

Claude followed the older man, scratching the back of his head as he went. "Well, I saw it yesterday, definitely. After that I had to really think back and examine a lot of stuff, but yeah. I don't know how I never noticed it even though I saw it all the time. I guess I got stuck on that crush he had on Precis since it was so funny."

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Ururun was still in possession of Ashton's body by the time breakfast was ready, which was really cool in Precis' opinion as she hadn't really gotten to see what he was like yet. She didn't know if it was by choice or if the others had told him to stay in the guest room until Ashton woke up to stay out of the way, but she did know that when Labe turned around with his plate and a glass of milk in her hands asking for a volunteer to bring it upstairs to the man that she had rushed from where she had been standing to grab it and claim responsibility for the task. Nobody really noticed her do it, they were all too busy talking about what to do about the traveling that they had planned for the day if Ashton didn't wake up soon.

"Hey." Precis figured she wasn't going to raise her voice too much at the dragon, she was pretty sure Ururun was the one that startled when someone did something really loud or quickly when he was zoned out like he seemed prone to. "I got breakfast! Mrs. Jules put a lot on here so you all could share or something, I guess." Ashton's possessed body had been looking to the doorway as she entered, so she guessed that she had made enough noise in the hallway for him to know she was coming or felt her approaching. He was a demon after all, maybe he was psychic or something too. She thought that she'd been pretty quiet coming up here.

"Thank you for bringing it to us. It was not necessary on your part." Ururun held out his hosts hands as she approached to accept the food and drink and placed it on the nightstand beside him before looking back to her. He was going to wait for her to leave and then eat through Ashton and ignore his other until he was done, he had already decided that when he had smelled the food cooking downstairs. Humans had much differently developed palates than the demons, perhaps due to their more varied diets. Whatever the reason, he rather enjoyed eating when he was controlling his host's body like this and he did not fear Gyoro picking on him or trying to start a fight at the moment due to Ashton's current mental state and the fact that they shared certain parts of their nervous and digestive systems with their host as it was. Gyoro may not experience the actual process of eating, but he would taste the food, feel the sensation of fullness as it gathered, and receive the nutrients from it as well. Besides, the demons had long ago come to the conclusion that their host did not eat enough considering his size and the extra burden that they had forced upon him. To counter this they made sure to eat what food was available to them directly as they controlled him or what quantities were within reach of them that they knew he would not consume when they were not in control. They had found that this stretched his stomach to some degree and he tended to eat more for a few days afterwards until his stomach adjusted and returned to normal.

Precis was a little surprised when he just took it from her and set it aside like that before turning to look at her. Was he waiting for her to leave? She wasn't going to; she wanted to talk to him for a bit and see what he was really like. "What's wrong? Eat up! Some of that stuff doesn't taste as good when it starts going cold, y'know."

Ururun cocked his head and studied the small inventor. "Have you eaten yet? I am fairly certain the Ashton would consider it 'rude' to eat in your presence if you have not." He was trying to adapt as much as he could to their ways of behaving before the ceremony in an effort to make the transition less difficult for him afterwards.

_Oh, wow_. It was like listening to_ Noel_ or something but _worse_ somehow. She'd thought that he would loosen up a little the next time he spoke, but apparently not. "_Seriously?_ Don't worry about that. Ashton's like _Mister Manners_ or something, most people aren't _like_ he is. You guys kinda got stuck with a bad example if you're going to start copying everything he does, he pays _way _more attention to that type of stuff than most people do." Ururun was just watching her, though. She rolled her eyes at him. What a stupid thing to be stubborn about. "Okay, what if I went down and got my plate and came back up? I kinda wanna talk to you a little."

Ururun nodded Ashton's head slightly, keeping his gaze on her as he did so. "I would agree to such an arrangement." He turned and considered the nightstand as she left and considered the room at large. Humans tended to sit facing one another while eating and speaking to each other. The nightstand would serve as a fine table, but it was positioned very poorly for the surface to be shared. He rose and removed the plate and glass and sat them on the dresser and then went about removing the lamp and other things gathered there and placing them beside his food and drink before pulling the nightstand out and shifting it to a position that would serve the desired purpose well between the beds. Precis returned with her own breakfast and a glass of juice as he moved his own back to the repurposed nightstand.

"Oh, wow. This is almost starting to feel like a _date_ or something. We just need a candle now." She's pretty sure she'll like Ururun if she can get him to loosen up a little. Someone who does all that just to make a situation more comfortable for someone else can't be that bad, and at least he wasn't blushing and stuttering like Ashton always does while doing it. He makes her uncomfortable when he does that, it's like he's embarrassed to be nice to her or something. She figures he just doesn't really like her all that much but does it anyway because that's just how he is even with how uncomfortable he always seemed to be when they were alone together. He's a nice guy though, she really likes Gyoro and Ururun's host when he's not driving her up a wall doing stuff like that and he's not depressed or staring at barrels. Now she's remembering that thing he had done in Fun City and trying to keep from laughing as she sits and tucks in to her meal. She's smiling at Ururun, partially out of her memories and wondering what the dragons think of Ashton's barrel thing, but also because he's finally starting to join in and eat his own food.

Ururun is not going to respond to the date comment; Ashton had explained to them what those are. He is fairly certain that if he told Precis about his host's former crush on her then she would let that slip accidentally or even question the man directly about it and then his host would be very, very upset with him. He is incredibly curious as to how she would take that information, however. Ururun finds her to be a very interesting individual with the things that she is always making, her perky personality and all the energy she has. He thinks that if she had shared his host's feelings he himself would have been very happy; he was sure Ashton would have passed along his questions to her or even allowed the two of them to speak together eventually. "What do you wish to speak with me about?"

"Oh, just stuff. I wanna see what you're like, is all. It's not like we've ever had a conversation before. Say, do you talk to Ashton the way you do us? You're kinda _wordy and stiff _when you talk like that." Precis has a feeling that most of the conversation is going to be the two of them lobbing questions at each other, but she's fine with that, it's pretty much what she came here for.

Ururun chewed and swallowed before responding, Precis had stopped talking much sooner than he had expected her to. "Wordy and stiff? He has never told us that, but perhaps that is because by the time we could speak to him in his mind we were very familiar with him. We do realize that we communicate in a different manner, but we have always supposed it is due to the way in which our thoughts are different from that of humans. Should we learn to communicate in a different manner when speaking?"

"_Oh yeah, definitely_," She was nodding so hard her head would fall off if she kept it up. "You're gonna need to fit in, _right?_ Learn to be human? That's part of it. You don't need to use so many words to express yourself. Also, we use, um, what are they called..._contractions_, I think. We mash words together and stuff. Like when you mentioned Ashton just now you said _'he has,'_ most of the time people'll just say _'he's.' _Stuff like that, you know? You've got to have heard it a bunch, you're in his head all the time and he talks pretty normally when he's not _stuttering_." Precis couldn't really help herself, she just had to roll her eyes as she said that last bit.

Ururun smiled to himself when she mentioned his host's nervous tic, it was something that he still found quite amusing even though he did not understand the emotion that caused it. Demons did not experience such an emotion, so it was quite unusual to him. "Then I suppose I will–_I'll_–try to speak in that manner more often."

"That was pretty good, but you could've said something like '_Okay, I'll try to talk like that_.' It sounds more..._normal_, I guess." She shrugged and motioned with her hand, the biscuit in it flashing in front of her. "It's not one of the big things really, but I'll help you out with it since it'll help you fit in. Oh, also, it's okay to sound like you have emotions. I know you do, I've seen you and Gyoro make faces and growl and stuff and you just smiled. That'll probably be harder to learn, I guess, but there's a lot of people that will think you're _weird_ if you talk to them like you're asleep or dead like that. You should try to show how you feel with your voice and body more is what I'm trying to say, _it's okay to emote a little_,_ y'know_?" She was talking _way to fast,_ but whatever. All of her thoughts had started going too quickly for her mouth to keep up with all the way and she wanted to get it all out right.

"I see. I think you're right, that'll take us some time and practice in our new bodies. Human vocal chords are very different from ours, I think that's the problem. It doesn't translate well when we speak through him like this." Ururun was looking down thoughtfully down at the plate as he spoke, wondering with Gyoro if Ashton would mind if they came out to practice with his friends. Gyoro was certain the he would not be allowed to until their host was no longer angry at him, though Ururun disagreed with him, as he was by no means a cruel individual. Both of them were surprised that the red dragon's punishment has been so severe and lasted as long as it has, but they understood that they had not only unintentionally harmed him physically yesterday, but had also severely frightened and angered Ashton twice in as many days.

"Does Ashton know we're talking?" If he doesn't she's going to ask him if she can see his crests. It really bugged her that she hadn't seen them yesterday and her curiosity was starting to kill her. She doesn't like not knowing things when she's really interested in understanding them, if she wasn't such an engineering geek she'd probably be interested in the other sciences as much Leon, Bowman, Ernest, or even Noel were in their specific fields.

"He doesn't. We will know before he can." Ururun was quite proud of himself; he was well aware that he had briefly returned to a more formal manner, but he thought that he was doing much better at conversing as a human would at the moment.

"Okay. Well, here's the thing. I didn't know that Ashton had crests until yesterday and I heard that they were different from Celine's so...I'm just kinda wondering if you can bring them out or whatever. I just wanna see what they look like for a second." Precis was wondering to herself if this wasn't going to go over some line that Ashton had drawn with the dragons over how to behave when they were like this. It was pretty obvious that he had self-confidence issues and didn't really like being seen by people with his clothes off for whatever reason. Which was weird; she'd been expecting to see horrible scars or hideous birthmarks or some kind of really _gross_ skin condition yesterday and all she had seen were the crests, which had looked like Celine's once they'd been healed.

"All of them? Most of his body is covered in them in some fashion, I'd need to disrobe him completely to show them to you." Which would be very_ bad_ and definitely get Ururun in _trouble_. Why Ashton felt such a need to hide his body as he did was something the dragons could not understand _at all_. From what they had witnessed while joined to him and watching females react to him once they were able to tune their presence out to some degree, they had gathered that his features were considered pleasing. They had also been attacked by, slain, and devoured hundreds of male specimens of his species over their lifetime and from what they had gathered from these experiences they had concluded that their host had no reason for such self-consciousness, which was another foreign concept to them. He cocked Ashton's head as a thought came to him. _Unless due to the slight frames that most of the females of the species possess smaller reproductive organs are preferred. If--_

"What? _Whoa. No. Nonononononono. Don't take anything off!_" Precis waved both her hands quickly before her and shook her head fiercely at him as she did so. "_Seriously_, don't do that. It's_ fine _if it's just his top, _that's great, really! I don't need to see it all!_" Precis was definitely starting to feel sorry for Ashton now, he was going to have his hands full explaining this stuff to them and making them understand if they didn't already. It didn't seem like Ururun did, at least.

"That's very good, it would've gotten me in quite a bit of trouble if he found out. You still wish to see them, yes?" Ururun was nodding to himself, glad to be torn away from his thoughts before he had become so engrossed in them that he had tuned her presence out. He ignored Gyoro's comments to him about how he should do it anyway, that the girl wanted to see the crests so she should be allowed to see all of them, that mortals were silly creatures with far too many useless emotions and customs. This was how his other always reacted when something that severely puzzled or frustrated him came up; he wanted to attack it or banish it from his presence as quickly as he could somehow. Ururun preferred to study and observe, to try to understand, no matter how difficult or time consuming it proved to be.

"Yeah, I can imagine," she laughed, relieved at that and glad that Ururun didn't need to be talked down. "Yep, you bet. Show'em to me."

It took a few seconds for Ururun to do. He was used to the crests being activated beforehand by Ashton himself or their magics still being at least partially present if fading, but their powers had not been called on for almost two days now and there was no clear path still visible to the demon in Ashton's mind to the learned and ingrained instinct that led to their triggering. He did find it though, feeling the body he was possessing tap into the heraldic energies that laid dormant in it and moved to stand away from the nightstand and bed for Precis to see what she could; when he had told her that the majority of his host's body was covered he had not been lying. He would have to show her the ones on the soles of his feet as they were a very interesting pattern of markings, one that he himself had never seen before.

"Oh, wow. _That's a lot_. I didn't think it'd be so different from Celine's, they're even different shapes and colors than hers. Why is that? Why does he have _so many_? Why are they_ everywhere_ like this? I mean, there's definitely a pattern to it but it's just all over where Celine has them mostly in a couple areas and that's it." Precis was standing as well now, looking over everything she could and even guiding Ururun to put Ashton's body in different positions by raising his arms and such so that she could see what she wanted. She held his right hand in hers, splaying the fingers out so she could get a good look at them. They were brighter on his fingers and not as dark as the ones on the fleshy parts of his palm, they were more a yellowed shade of white than the pinks found there and the dimmer deep reds and dark purples that seemed to be everywhere else. "This must've hurt."

"All I can tell you is what Ashton himself has shared with us. The crests pick up the color of his blood and flesh because the ink used was so concentrated and it is buried so far down in the body in most instances. That is also why the light that comes from them is so dimmed in comparison to Celine's. Hers are placed in the layers of her skin and so when they glow, the light given off by their power is not affected in the same way, which also explains their brightness. They are different shapes because he is not naturally gifted to call on them and so requires many separate classes of crests to access his dormant abilities. It did indeed hurt, it is a very difficult process to endure, apparently." Ururun didn't mind being handled in such a way, he had done much the same as her the first time he had gained control over Ashton's body in private to examine the crest markings. He had done other things as well, of course. They had been things that he had gathered would have been very upsetting for his host if he had known, but the demon was a constant slave to his curiosity and had decided to sate it regardless of any punishment the man might have meted out. He had also taken it upon himself to repeat a few of these actions whenever he controlled Ashton's body like this, they were very pleasurable activities and he had noticed after the first time he had done so a very noticeable reduction in stress for his host. "I find the ones on the soles of his feet fascinating, I will show them to you if you wish." He blinked as he realized suddenly that he had forgotten to speak more casually throughout his explanation. Ururun supposed that changing their speech patterns was going to be a fairly difficult process.

Precis wasn't really paying attention to the way he spoke, just the words themselves at the moment. If he was still doing it in a few minutes when she wasn't so distracted then she'd remind him. She's his teacher now, yes she is. "Oh, really? He's got them there too? _Ouch_." Ururun settled himself back on the bed behind him to show her more comfortably and she bent down to study them. She'd pretty much decided that she liked Ururun, there weren't many people that could put up with and even encouraged her brand of determined curiosity unfazed like he was. "Oh, hey, these are like parts of his hands and almost white in some places again like Celine's. Guess there's not much for them to pick up on other than bone though, so it makes sense. You're right, they're really cool looking, too." He was right about how different they were. She almost wanted to drag the mage up here to see if she knew anything about them, but she figured she might get in trouble for bothering Ururun. "Okay, that's good. Thanks for letting me see them. You need to finish the rest of your breakfast." She was bouncing a little in place now, very happy to have had her curiosity sated in such an accommodating fashion. "_So_, is this whole possessing Ashton thing the first time you've ever been around us like this or have you two been around people before?"

"It is. That's how it's always been to our knowledge, we have never heard of a time where demons wandered the world in arm with man," Ururun nodded, the crests slowly fading and grabbed the plate to hold it in a position that it would be easy for his other to eat. Gyoro had been having a difficult time lately, he'd let him finish everything.

"Must've been a big shock then since we're so different, apparently." Precis started tapping her foot and looking to the ceiling in thought. She had more questions for him, but looking at the crests seemed to have knocked them all out of her head.

Ururun was trying to keep the plate steady for his other while he studied her intently. "May I ask you a question?"

"'Can I,' that's more casual. Use that, it'll be easier to talk to people that way." She was nodding at the ceiling, but whatever. Doing this type of stuff jogged her brain when she was in the garage at home, she'd make the guest room ceiling do it too. " Of course you can. I just asked you a bunch of stuff and invaded Ashton's personal space, so shoot."

"How does your invention...how does Bobot operate? It's not organic, it has no blood or sinew or muscles or organs or bones. How does such a thing move the way it does? How does it respond to you the way it does?"

That made her look down at him, completely boggled and overjoyed. "_Seriously? You really wanna know?_"

"I do." Ururun was still studying her, a bit puzzled by her reaction. "Is that abnormal somehow?"

"Well, you're pretty much the first to ask that question since Leon and Opera, so yeah. Not in a _bad_ way, though. Most people just don't like him the second they see him for some reason. Maybe they're just so not used to seeing stuff like him around." She was wondering how to explain it to him, everyone else she'd ever talked to about Bobot had at least some understanding of basic mechanics and engineering. If they got most of their knowledge about human stuff from Ashton then they probably didn't know anything beyond the fact that he was made of metal and would rust. "Um, okay. You know how you were talking about muscles and bone and stuff? Bobot's got all those things, they're just made of different stuff than ours are and put in different places."

"How so?" He's trying to imagine it, he truly is, but he has seen her tinker on and repair Bobot in the past and he had not seen anything resembling an organic being. Gyoro had eaten very quickly as is their habit when they are in their true forms, so he set the plate back on the nightstand.

Precis found herself staring at the ceiling again as she answered. "Well, the outside of Bobot is like his skin, but it's also part of his skeleton in certain places. His joints are...well, they're not exactly like a person's, they're inside out from ours in some spots. He's got sensors and wiring for his nerves and oil for his blood....." Man, this was harder than she thought. She wondered if she had lost him already. She looked down and saw the confused look on his face and sighed. "Sorry. I've never tried to tell anyone about him that didn't already know a little about this stuff. I don't really know how to explain it. I'll try to think of something, I really will, but I don't know if I'll be able to. Can you read?"

"We both seem to have acquired the ability from our bond with Ashton, yes. He reads so often that we've learned it by watching his mind as he does so." He was vaguely wondering why she had asked that. Did she have a book that would explain it all? He wondered if Ashton would consent to reading it or holding it for him so that he could himself if he could not finish it before he woke up, the man should be waking soon within the next hour, he would hope. Ururun would begin to worry if he did not, he realized that they had pushed his body very hard coming here and that the past days had been stressful for him, but it was not like their host to sleep quite so deeply or for so long. The activation of his crests, the eating and moving, and the almost constant talking that Ururun had done in the past two hours should be slowly filtering down to him. Maybe he should find somewhere private and manipulate Ashton's body again once this conversation was done with, perhaps the reduction in stress would help him awaken.

"Okay, good. I've got lots of books at home about this stuff. I'll send them to you or make you a list of them to give it to you or Ashton. After you read those I'll be able to tell you exactly how Bobot works. I'll keep trying to think of ways to explain it better too, just in case I can come up with something." She didn't like not being able to explain it to him, but she would someday.

"I'd like that. Can I ask you something else?" He needed something to distract him from his thoughts now. Ururun had somehow managed to arouse a little fear in his other as well and Gyoro was mentally shifting and trying to push on their host's mind despite his confined state, regardless of how both of them knew that it would most likely not do anything.

"Ask away." Despite the disappointment of finding out that she wasn't half as good at explaining Bobot as she thought she was, she was still happy. She hadn't really thought that she would get along with the demon like this when she decided to come pester him.

"When you came here you said that you brought Bowman with you in Bobot. Did you travel under the sea using him as you did when we were in battle and you tunneled through the earth to hit our enemies?"

"See, that's another thing that I don't know that I can explain right," Precis frowned, not liking this at all before an idea came to her and another smile came to her face. "If we can sneak outside I'll show it to you though! I'll even drive you around in it." She was nodding to herself as she said that and telling herself that she'd have to be very careful with what she did and how fast she went if he said yes.

Ururun stood and nodded to her as he smiled. "I'd like that very much."

"Great! Put a sweater and some shoes on real fast, if we wait too long the others will be done talking downstairs and they might catch us." She quickly fished Bobot from her backpack and made her way to the entryway of the guest room and started acting as a lookout, holding him to her chest and bouncing in place as she stood. Yep, her and Ururun were gonna get along juuust fine.

\\\\\

The look of horror that had spread over Bowman's face as the distinct sound of Bobot transforming somewhere outside had instantly put a halt to the discussion that had been going on around the table that morning. It had taken Rena a second to connect the face with the sound, and once the pharmacist stood and began racing to the door she came to the realization the Precis hadn't been at the table for a very long time and that Ururun was still upstairs. She was hoping that the body of her possessed friend was still upstairs at least, because now she was racing after the pharmacist with the others as he pulled the front door open so violently it almost slammed shut behind him before Dias grabbed it and threw it open again as he followed. They could all hear Precis' laughter ringing through the crisp winter morning air as they ran towards the nearest entrance to town before it faded suddenly and a sound that Rena had never quite heard before–though still familiar somehow–rolled through the air and started fading as though it was retreating rapidly.

Bowman was cursing loudly as he fell into third position behind Dias and Claude, one swordsman's stride outpacing his own easily while the other's youthful stamina edged him out slowly despite their equal height. "_I'm going to kill her_," he growled, finally reaching the other two men where they now stood at the edge of town and watched as a loud, blue something that could only be a transformed Bobot grew smaller and smaller in the distance. "_She's dead_ when she gets back here."

"No, she's not," Rena glared in a disproving manner at the back of the man's head after tearing her gaze from the blue dot that had to be Bobot. "We're not even sure she's got Ashton with her. Maybe she just got tired on waiting for us and decided to...um, do whatever it is she's doing." She couldn't understand the pharmacist's passionate dislike for her friend or how it had lasted despite the way their travels had drawn everyone else together. Even though Precis had come to the group proclaiming herself to be her 'rival' for Claude's affections, they had still moved past that and become friends eventually.

"Did....Did she turn Bobot into a car?" Claude was worried too, but he was a bit distracted at the moment as well. He had the sinking feeling that he might have been the one to put the idea in her head somehow. It was the same one he had gotten when he had realized that she had modified her invention to transform into a tank that could burrow underground. "Ah, maybe someone should check the house. See if Ururun's upstairs." _Please let Ururun still be upstairs, if Ashton comes back while they're in that thing he might die of fright._

Celine had already started retreating to her abode once she realized that it might be a while before the impulsive teenager would be back. "I'll go, darlings. I'll bring him back with me if he's in there," she called to the others distractedly over her shoulder. The woman couldn't quite stop herself from hoping that Bowman followed through on his threats if Ashton's possessed body was with Precis. Really, if she didn't find either him or his little snitch in the house somewhere she might just summon a meteor swarm to take care of the girl herself.

"Is that what you call it? _A car_? Thanks for giving her the idea, by the way. She nearly killed both of us a dozen times before we even got to Hilton." Bowman was grossly exaggerating and he knew it, but maybe if he said it enough Claude and the other members of their group that came from more advanced civilizations would realize that they needed to _stop giving Precis ideas like this_. At least Leon could control himself, even if he did claim ignorance after the Lacour laboratory came out with something that everyone knew he had heard about from one of them.

Dias stood watching the horizon as Bobot ducked back in and out of sight at a fairly rapid pace. He had never heard of a 'car' before unless he had tuned it out and tried to forget about it as best he could as he did sometimes when the Earthing, Nedians and Tetragenes started going on about 'advanced technologies' with one another. He wasn't worried to any true degree; there wasn't any smoke from what he could tell and Ashton and the dragons had strong constitutions. He was fairly certain that unless Precis crashed Bobot somehow there wouldn't be any need for real concern at this point. Besides, it looked like the demons needed to learn that there were some that shouldn't be trusted under certain circumstances. Dias counted Precis as one of those people.

"It was a long time ago, I'd honestly thought she'd forgotten about it." Claude was glad he had his jacket on now, this was definitely one of those times that called for his hands to be stuffed as far down in its pockets as they could be. "I can't believe she did it."

"I'm sure she didn't mean to," Rena defended as she made her way to Claude's side and wrapped her arm in his, still watching Bobot intently. Several minutes passed as the four gathered there watched the blue dot travel back and forth. "Dias, does it look to you like she's coming back here, or am I seeing things?"

"Looks like it," he confirmed. He was still watching intently, expecting Precis to turn her invention back around at any minute. "She might just be moving around, though. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to her movements."

"_Oh, good_. You all make sure she _stays here_, I'm going to go get my _Moon Fists _and _pills_ out of my backpack," Bowman growled to no one in particular as he started retreating to the house.

"Hey, Bowman, get back here." Claude looked over his shoulder at the retreating pharmacist. "She didn't mean anything. She probably didn't think that we'd even know about it."

Bowman wasn't going to be stopped this time. "_I don't care. I'm tired of this_."

"_Bowman!_" Rena was starting to get tired of this herself. "_Get over_ here and _calm down_ or I'm going to _follow you_ and get my _Empresias_."

"So you're gonna help? I call first dibs." He still stopped, though. Rena was scary when she was angry.

Rena didn't respond, she just craned herself around Claude to give the man a hard stare until he returned to his original spot like a whipped dog. She was so glad that Nineh already had him fully trained and housebroken.

It turned out that Precis was indeed returning to the village. Bobot slowed to a stop about ten yards in front of the others and the inventor hopped out of the car quickly, laughing all the while as her passenger exited at a more sedate pace with a broad smile on his face, neither of them paying attention to the others. "Really? You really mean that?" Precis was bouncing in place again as she manipulated Bobot's controller and he started reverting to normal.

Ururun backed away calmly as it began to revert to its original state, looking on with interest as it did so. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't." He looked over at the others as they approached, noticing Celine walking quickly towards the group in front of him. "Hello. Precis was just showing me Bobot's newest form. Ashton's starting to wake up. He'll be back soon and you can continue on."

"Thats great," Claude blinked as he made his way forward with Rena at his side, slightly taken aback. He had expected the dragon to exit in the exact opposite manner than he had. He was also trying to figure out why Ururun was talking differently and struggling to place just what type of historical car Bobot resembled when transformed like that; his mind kept wanting to say something like a 'Volkie Bug,' but he knew that wasn't quite right.

Bowman was certain now that the dragon was completely insane. "How long until he's back?" If he talked to or looked at Precis for more than a few seconds for the rest of the day he might just give in to temptation and strangle her.

"Not long. Perhaps a moment or two. All the recent activity I've done seems to have created enough stimulation to speed his awakening." Ururun was studying them, trying to determine why their behavior seemed so tense at the moment. "Is something wrong? Have I done something?"

"Well...." Rena didn't really know how to explain this to the dragon, especially since as far as she was concerned neither him or Precis had done anything wrong. "Not really, but in a way you did. You scared us because we didn't know where you were or if you were okay."

Precis gathered up Bobot once he was done and rolled her eyes, her back to everyone as she did so. It wasn't like she was going to do anything that would have put Ashton or the dragons in danger. If Ururun had told her to stop and turn back she would have. She'd done it the second he told her that his host was waking up, after all. "Ururun's human name is going to be Urie, we decided that while we were driving around. We still haven't figured out what to call Gyoro." She held her invention in her arms as she approached the others, her head held high. "The only thing I've been able to come up with is _'Gary_' and_ none of us like that_," She scrunched her face up as she spoke. It really was a terrible name, she couldn't believe she'd even suggested it.

Dias blinked. He supposed that the dragons would need new names, the connotations of their present ones were a bit too childish for anyone to take seriously. He just hadn't been expecting them to begin considering such things yet. Especially not with Precis, of all people.

"They don't need new names," Rena balked as she said that, letting go of Claude and staring at her friend in bewilderment. "They have great names."

Bowman and Claude shared a look as they made their way to their doubly possessed friend. They weren't going to be touching this conversation with a thirty-foot barge pole. No sane person would. Bowman supposed that meant that they needed to distract _'Urie'_ before he decided to join in and got his host in trouble.

"Oh, _come on_, Rena. You seriously want them to be walking around calling themselves _'Creepy'_ and _'Weepy'_ all the time? Everyone's going to think they're _weirdos_ if they do that." Precis made a face as she spoke, coming to a stop a few feet from her friend.

"No, they won't. Gyoro and Ururun are good names, Precis. They don't need to change them," Rena stopped for a moment as she noticed Celine passing her quickly by. "Celine, do you think–"

"I'm sorry, darling, but I'm a bit busy," Celine dismissed, her burgundy eyes trained on the possessed swordsman ahead of her. She passed Bowman and Claude as she almost jogged towards Ururun and_ fought _the urge to smack the dragon. "Sit down on the ground. I don't want Ashton to come back to himself and nearly fall over again." The mage came to a stop less than two feet away and looked up at him slightly, hoping that the dragon's head would move into a position that she could strike it at. Really, you would think that demons that had lived for thousands of years would know better to listen to _nineteen year old girls_.

"That shouldn't be necessary. He wasn't allowed to rest for several days beforehand and Gyoro switched mental positions with him rather abruptly–" Ururun stopped short and started blinking as Ashton stirred to full consciousness.

......._Ururun, why is Celine looking at us like that?_ His host was sounding a little groggy; all the mental and physical activity Ururun had engaged in recently must have pulled him back in a much less peaceful manner than usual.

"I don't care. I want you to sit on the ground _right now_." Celine was being flanked by Bowman and Claude, with Dias fast approaching to get away from the squabbling pair of girls behind him. She had a feeling that if he didn't do what she said in the next ten-seconds she was going to have the two men beside her force him to comply with her demands.

_Do it. Fast. She looks like she's going to kill us if you don't. Tell them I'm awake once you sit down. What happened?_

_I asked Precis how Bobot transported them to the village and she offered to show me. I accepted._ Ururun quickly nodded outwardly and sat on the ground as the two humans had instructed him to. "Ashton is awake now."

_Oh. Well that sou–wait. Did you tell them you were going to do that?_

_No. Precis said that they did not need to know and that they might stop us. Should I have?_

"Good." Celine was having to restrain herself now that the dragon was within her reach, she had been about to smack Ururun's actual head despite his horns before he had told her that. "I'd like for you to switch with him as soon as possible. If you don't mind, of course." She almost hoped that he decided that he did mind and told her so. If he did that she might get angry enough to forget about their ability to share sensations and go ahead and act on impulse. She'd feel absolutely horrible about it afterwards, but she wasn't thinking clearly at the moment.

**_Yes! _**_Did you think that they wouldn't worry if they noticed? Nod and close your eyes, try to look like you're concentrating._

Ururun did as Ashton instructed, trying to ignore the way Celine was looking at him. _I did not consider it. Am I going to be punished?_

Ashton shrugged mentally, the activity sweeping through the two minds connected to his. _I don't know yet. Probably not since you didn't know any better, it's not like we've ever talked about that before. Unless you did something else. Gyoro, did he do anything else?_ The brothers would tattle on each other in a heartbeat, Ashton knew that far too well.

Gyoro mentally screamed to be heard by the other two. _No. Ururun passed on my apology to Bowman for how I acted the other day. May I come out?_

_Really? I'm proud of you Gyo–_Ashton's mental presence went impossibly still_….You mean I didn't let you out before I went to sleep? _A flurry of mental activity ensued. **_Get out of there!_**_ Why didn't either of you wake me up and _**_tell me_**_ that? I didn't mean to leave you in there that long! Are you okay? I didn't mean to do that._

_I am well now. We were not able to reach you before you fell asleep. You lost consciousness suddenly while Celine was putting the crests in and did not awaken after Rena healed you or when your male companions placed you in your bed. _Gyoro was stretching mentally as he spoke._ When we next awoke, Ururun had taken your place._

_I'm so sorry, Gyoro. I didn't mean for that to happen._

_It is fine. I am relieved to know that I did not upset you so severely that it was intentional on your part._

_I can't believe you think I'd actually do that. Ururun, switch with me. They'll be worried if I don't come back soon. I'll make it up to you Gyoro, I promise._

Claude was really starting to wonder why it was taking so long for Ashton to come back, he didn't remember it taking so much time before and he was sure it had always been instantaneous or very near to it. He shared a quick glance with Bowman and Dias, who had joined them seconds ago and then stepped forward to look at Celine, who was looking rather worried. "This shouldn't be taking so long, should it." It was more of a statement than a question, her expression and body language indicated that their hunch had been right.

Celine shook her head and wrapped her arms about herself, wondering if she truly did need to smack the dragon, if Ururun was playing a trick on her to avoid her temper. She studied his host intently, looking for signs of consciousness and almost gasped when she noticed the fingers on his left hand twitch. She quickly shifted her gaze to his face in time to see his eyes blink open, green again, as he shook his head slightly. "Darling, are you all right?"

"Ah, yeah. I'm fine," Ashton sniffed as he dragged one of his hands over his face. "Sorry about that. I woke up to see you telling him to sit here and I wanted to know what happened, so I just..."

"Here," Claude offered as he and Dias stepped over to him at nearly the same time. "Let us give you a hand up." He knew how to offer help to his best friend without winding him up. Hopefully if he demonstrated it would jog Bowman's memory. Besides, it would be difficult for Ashton to stand like that; Ururun had sat down in a position that would be awkward for them to balance themselves as he stood.

"Thanks," Ashton smiled at the two, not liking needing the help of two people but also realizing the position Ururun left him in and took their hands. "So," he began as he found himself on his own feet and raised his eyebrows as he noticed the girls arguing behind the others. "Um....I guess we're waiting on them to calm down before we get out of here?"

\\\\\

Cross was as lively as ever, even in the midst of winter, at least from what Claude could see as he helped Rena off the bunny they had called to transport the group. "So, I've been thinking–"

"Uh-oh. Look out everybody, one of our fearless leaders is at it again," Bowman called from the other side of the large mammal. He stretched and rotated his shoulders, thinking about how much better the Synard had been for this type of travel. Dias dropped down beside him and glanced at him from the corner of his eye before looking back up to Precis and motioning for her to start making her way down. He knew the pharmacist wasn't going to be offering any help to her today.

"_I've been thinking_ about the rooming arrangements. Since Ashton's insisting on paying for everything he can _think_ _of_," he stopped to toss a look up at his friend and shake his head at him, "we'll room a little differently than normal. Rena and Precis will be in one room, us guys will take another, and Ashton and Celine will split one so they can work on his crests and not worry about any of us bugging them." Was it payback for being so insistent about paying for everything or was it Claude trying to get the heraldic swordsman to wake up? Who was he kidding, everyone but Precis and Ashton knew exactly what he was doing. It was a little hard to keep a straight face as Rena gave him a knowing smile from where she now stood in front of him.

Ashton was very glad to be up on the bunny still, even if Celine was up there with him. He figured it might be hiding how red his face was right now. "Um, ah...I-I think th-that's a bit much. I-I mean, there's no need for the three of you to share a room when they only have two beds each. I'm sure Celine would rather have a room to herself or at least be able to get away from me once she's done and–"

She'd best interrupt him; he was hair shy of a full-blown ramble now. "It's quite all right, darling. I don't mind. And he's right, it would do the same thing as giving either of us a single to work in and be lighter on your purse, I'm sure." She knew what Claude was doing. He was making it much more difficult for her to keep her mouth shut about this whole thing and keep her hands to herself. Bowman was right; patience wasn't her strongest attribute.

That had knocked the excess color from his face for some reason. "Are you sure?" He turned to look at her, starting to wonder if she was feeling well. He knew just how upset the crest branding had been making her and had meant to talk to her about it last night, but hadn't been able to work up the nerve to broach the subject and had passed out before Rena left.

"Yes, quite." She nodded reassuringly and smiled at him.

"Well....If you're okay with it then I guess I can't say anything." He looked down again and found Claude and Rena moving out of the way, whispering to each other for some reason as they went. He wanted to say that he didn't like this, but he couldn't and didn't know quite why. He didn't want to think about it either, at least not while he still needed to get her down and off the bunny. "So, I'll go first and help you down. Do you want me to catch you or help you as you climb?" Thank Tria she was wearing sensible travel clothes out of deference to the season. He didn't think he would have been able to get that offer out if she was dressed as she had when they had traveled together the last time. He hoped that her luck would cancel his out if she decided to jump, this would be the first time that they'd ever done anything like this if she accepted his offer.

"Mm." Celine didn't really need to think on either of those options despite both having their pros and cons. Pretending to think on it allowed her to watch him a bit as he started climbing down, though. "I think I might prefer it if you caught me." It was a double entendre, though she doubted he would catch it.

She'd be surprised. He discounted the notion near instantaneously as he always did though, blinking rapidly and shaking his head at himself as she was just teasing him again at most. He reached a height that he was comfortable jumping from quickly and fell back from the large animal. "I can do that," he called up lightly after he landed, the dragons on his back shifting and being very careful with their thoughts despite his distracted state as he tried to gauge just where he should be for this. "Where do you want me?" That was as well, he just didn't intend it.

She blinked at the tone of his response and his question before she saw the look on his face, almost thinking that the impossible had just happened thrice over and he had not only caught what she said but had also undergone an abrupt personality change and returned her flirting. In public. The others were watching them, she knew that much. It looked as though Rena and the boys had caught that as well and she almost shook her head at them. Really, Dias was the only one out of the entire lot that could be trusted to behave himself. If they weren't more careful Precis might realize what was happening and then Ashton would know all about what was going on when she announced her little discovery out loud. "A little to my right, I think–yes, that's perfect. Are you ready?" She suddenly became hesitant, remembering how easily the dragons had pulled the muscles in his back yesterday.

He nodded up at her. "Yeah, I've got you."

"You're sure?"

_Where did this come from?_ "Celine," he called slowly as he smiled up at her, amused and disbelieving at this sudden turn, making a languid come-here gesture with the first two fingers of his right hand. "Get down here."

She rather liked that expression he had now and the gesture he had given, even if he obviously had absolutely no idea just what he could use it for. She'd tell him one day, it didn't look like he'd need much practice with it. She might just keep this up if he wasn't careful with that. "Well, then. You best catch me."

The smile just stayed on his face at her return comment and lasted until she turned herself and jumped off lightly, allowing herself to fall. He came to the quick realization that she had been ever so slightly off in her calculations but was able to adjust for that and catch her easily enough by slightly adjusting his stance. "Ummph!.....See? I got you, there wasn't any need to worry." He'd put her down once she opened her eyes again and loosened her arms from around his neck, it wouldn't be right to just position her back on the ground until she had adjusted.

She wasn't going to quite yet, she was waiting for some pain to register somewhere in his body from that. Which was terrible; if it hadn't been for his back being injured by the dragons yesterday she would have been able to enjoy this. She really was starting to dislike them, despite how enlightening Ururun had been for her earlier in the day. "You're not hurt?" She'd like to tighten her arms a bit more, but it seems that they were fastened around his neck as much as they could be already.

"Is that what you were worried about?" He shook his head at her slightly as Rena came over to shoo the bunny and he moved away to avoid any dust it might kick up. "I'm fine, you don't need to_ worry_ about me like that. Rena healed me already and I wasn't tensed up enough to make the dragons pull anything when they started moving to help me catch you."

She opened her eyes once he had started moving and studied his face, looking for signs that he was hiding something. She didn't see anything there, so she decided to let herself enjoy this until he stopped moving again and looked at her questioningly. "I suppose I'm ready to get down now, if that's the case." Celine removed one of the arms that she had around his neck as he helped her reconnect with the ground before she uncurled the other one, not much caring for the sensation of being separated from him. Another thing she shouldn't have done. This was ridiculous, she most definitely wasn't going to be able to stop herself from doing or saying anything until the dragons were removed if this kept up. "Thank you, that was very sweet of you."

"You're welcome, of course. Anytime." He was feeling floaty and tingly again. Ashton blinked rapidly and looked around, finding Rena watching the bunny intently as it wandered off in the distance. He hoped that winter would continue to be as mild as it had been in Cross so that they wouldn't enter hibernation before they got back, they tended to wait until the first real snowfall to retreat to their burrows until the first signs of spring. Claude and Bowman were talking to each other with their backs to them, Dias at their front and to the side as he looked to the city, speaking to the other men as he did so. Precis was....Precis was standing to the side and looking between their separate groups with a curious look on her face. Something was going on. _Are they...doing what I...._ He shook his head, he wasn't going to finish that thought. They were crazy if they were doing what he thought they were doing. Celine flirted with him almost constantly, but she had done that ever since she realized that it made him embarrassed; it was how she teased and played with him, even after he had gotten used to it. If yesterday in the hall had somehow gotten the idea in their heads that he thought was in their heads, then they must not have been paying attention during the time they had travelled together. If they kept this up he might have to talk to Claude and Rena, they had to be the ringleaders. He started towards the city entrance, trying to wipe the look off that he knew was on his face and replace it with his usual smile. "So. Lets go get on the audience list. It's already past midday, if we wait too long we'll be stuck here in the morning."

Celine followed him, giving the others a look to let them know what had just happened as Precis ran ahead of them. She couldn't believe that they had been so obvious about that or thought that he wouldn't notice something was off with his former crush just standing around so obviously confused. She was going to have a talk with all of them later.

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"I'm sorry. I-I just..."Ashton was looking to his side, away from Celine as she worked on placing the outlines for his crests down his left forearm and the back of his hand. "I never _realized _how much this was going to hurt you. If I had known that, I...."

"What?" Celine had been worried about this conversation from the moment this had all started, she had a feeling that she might lose control of herself in one way or another. "What would you have done? Would you have fought the dragons, tried your best not to come here at all even after they did that?" She sighed as she removed the treated cloth, examining her work and shaking her head at her at herself. She shouldn't have said that, she knew that wasn't where his apology had been leading. Setting the cloth aside, she wished that he had picked a better time for this, she was far too wound up from preparing to put the crests in again. They needed a rule about what type of conversation could be made when they were getting ready to do this. "Don't answer that, darling, it was a terrible question."

He shook his head. "Celine, when I found this ritual I fought with the two of them for hours over it. I fought with them for so long that Ururun got so frustrated he took me over while there was a lull in it and I wasn't expecting it. I was almost asleep when he did it." He focused his gaze on the outline, growing tired of looking at the wall and swallowed nervously before continuing. The question she'd asked deserved an answer even if she was willing to give him a way out. He was surprised it hadn't come up the other night while they were in the kitchen after he had admitted it to her. "They're powerful. You know it, I know it, and there's_ two of them_. I knew that there was a good chance I could come to you all, see you again for–what, a week and a half, maybe two at most–take you all there and then I'd be gone. I tried to turn back when they let me go so that they could sleep because...I was...I was scared. I wanted to find something else the wouldn't involve you all having to watch me die_. _To watch_ all of us die." _He wished that he could be even half as sure as the dragons seemed to be about going through with this. Even with Bowman and Dias acting as donors he still had doubts about it. She deserved to know that as well, despite her protestations._ "_And...there still is that chance, there's no way we can measure how much of it will be needed for them to be transferred. Even if it does work out, you read it, you know how we're still tied together even if it goes well. Until they can learn humanity and go back to their old forms, I still have to look out for them. If one of us dies, so do the others. All that they have to do is say the wrong thing to the wrong person and I'm dead on the spot. I wanted to find something different but everything I found lead to them dying and they were tired of waiting. They figured that a small chance is better than no chance at all."

Why did he have to choose now to be stubborn again? Celine was on edge at the moment, she wasn't able to control either her mouth or her thoughts when she was like this. "You could have come to us at anytime. Did you really think that wouldn't have_ helped_ you search?" She mixed the inks together vigorously, needing to do something to avoid throwing it at him. She disliked everything about this conversation. "Claude's right, _you're an idiot_."

"I made you do that and _wasted your time_ once already with it, I wasn't going to do it again." He was going to ignore the insult, he'd been expecting them. There were worse things she could have called him, she'd be moving up the ranks of offensiveness soon if he got her so angry she forgot herself. He was almost expecting a few burns by the time this was over as well.

"_Damn you!_" She slammed the ink down and turned to him glare at him. This again. "_I swear to Tria, if I didn't already know that all those people who put these things in your head were dead, I'd be tracking them down to murder them right now!_ You're important to us, you're important to _me_, very important. You have no idea how much we all love you, how much _I love you_. Did you see how Claude and Rena reacted when you first greeted them yesterday morning and how they looked while I put the_ crests in_? Did you see the way Claude _ran away_ and Rena keeps _losing control_ of her magics? How can you _sit there_ and say that it would have been _a waste of our time_?" Her crests were flaring beneath her clothing, she could feel the burn of that light run up the inside of her left leg and across her abdomen and chest to the top of her right breast as she forced her voice down.

He didn't know how the conversation had so swiftly changed course, it left him fighting the urge to run from the room as she quieted herself. "_I...Ce-Celine, tha-that's not what I meant...._" He ducked his head down and away from her as he ran a hand through his hair and felt the dragons move around him to comfort him.

"No, that is what you meant. _Stop lying to yourself_ if that's what you're doing and _stop lying to me_, Ashton. Please, don't. You never have before, please don't start now. We _love you_, you're our dear, dear friend. I can't say that the others that joined us later on care so fiercely for you, but _the three of us_? Can you honestly say that you thought that we would _turn you away_?" She was almost mimicking him now, holding herself again and trying to keep her eyes from him as she realized just how upset he must be to be allowing the dragons to move around him like that in front of another person. The mage found herself oddly jealous at their display of comfort, wishing that someone was doing the same for her now and knowing that he'd most likely balk at the moment if she tried to do the same as them.

He wanted to say 'no' the second she started throwing those questions at him, but found himself unable to do anything but silently work his mouth. Even if she hadn't just told him not to lie he wouldn't have been able to do it. It startled him, this sudden realization of just how little he trusted the love that he knew that his friends shared for him, how he expected it to slip away if he pushed or asked for too much. Now he knew why he had always stayed so far from them after they had returned to their former lives, why he had so violently resisted the idea of coming here and why it had been so easy for him to throw off the insistent urge to drop everything he had been doing and visit them even before they had discovered the texts. "...I...._I can't...._" Shaking his head, feeling a little lost and very angry at himself now, he shrugged the dragons from around himself and stood as he tried to find the right words. "I....You know now, I told you yesterday and....I just...I've just never _had_ this before, Celine. I've never had people like the three of you and...._It's terrifying_. I'm always waiting to say or do something and for you to...."

She knew exactly what he was trying to say, Ururun had told her all about it and it was easy enough to see even without the dragon's psychoanalysis of his host. She still hated it, hated what those people had done to him all through his life. She might just make a tour of those mass graves in El that she had heard whispers about while they were in the country and desecrate a few corpses to release all of this rage she had. It didn't even matter if it was the correct bodies she destroyed at this point, as long as she could pretend it was the corpse of one of _those_ _people_, she'd be overjoyed. "I know it is, darling, I know...." Tria help her, she was going to paraphrase _Bowman Jean_ of all people now, even as she tried to keep her voice from showing the way she was struggling to hold back the tears of frustration and fear and other emotions she's been keeping from him and the others over the past few days. She forced herself away from him, walking from the desk they had been working at to the side of her bed, staring down at it as she hid her face from him. "It's always difficult and frightening when you realize that there are people like that in your life....But we're here now, please stop running from us and pushing at us when we try to help. We want you close by, we told you that after you decided not to exorcize these two the first time. Claude told me the night he came to Mars that he was planning to go looking for you with Dias and drag you back to Arlia with him before you showed up on my doorstep. You're not a burden, you never have been. Yes, you're troubled, but so is everyone in their own way. It doesn't matter, we still love you." She was speaking far too slowly and saying whatever came in to her head now, but she couldn't help that; her voice was betraying her already and was all she could do to blink back the tears and hold back the sobs that she could feel building inside of her from escaping her throat.

"Celine...." He had been stuck in place as he watched her speak, first from the tension of discussing the things they were and then the realization that he was making her cry. That had shocked him enough to move forward towards her a few feet before he had frozen from uncertainty as to what he should do. He wasn't good at comforting people, it was another thing he had almost no experience in and he himself was still fighting the insistent urge to run that refused to lessen itself. He finally managed to close the distance between them and lay a hand on her shoulder just from pure anger at himself for doing this to her. "I don't know what I can say to...make this better. I know I'm not good at any of this and you're right....I need to change that somehow. I thought that...that I had gotten better while we were traveling and then....I-I want to....The three of you _make_ me want to and I just don't know_ how_ and....I'm so sorry. For making you _worry_ and putting you _though all of this_ and asking you to put the _crests in_ and _everything. I'm just so sorry, Celine."_

She wanted to hit him even worse than she had Ururun earlier today. She wished she could do it, she had almost thought herself capable of it until he had slowly made his way over and touched her the way he was. "You had a bit of a backslide, darling, it's really not surprising after so long," she explained, turning to meet his eyes even though it meant losing his hand on her shoulder. "Just stay. After all this is done, just stay. If not in Mars then at least in Cross or Lacour, somewhere that we can find you and hear from you and see you. That's all you need to do, it'll come back if you do that and you let it." She took the half-step between them and wrapped her arms around him as she buried her face in the juncture of his neck and chest as best she could, not caring if he froze in shock or discomfort now and needing to touch him and show him somehow just how much they cared and wanted him here with them. "I didn't mean to say those things to you."

Being hugged by Celine was a very different experience than having the same done to him by Rena, it was much rarer and there was something else there that he had never been able to identify when she did it. He wasn't going to let her put the crests in now and probably not tonight either, she was much too distraught at the moment and needed a break from it all. He returned the hug a bit hesitantly before kicking himself, things like this were what he needed to get used to again if he wanted to go back to how he had been before their journey had ended and he had made at least _some_ sense to himself. "No, I needed to hear it." He ignored that floaty and tingly sensation that was slowly becoming familiar again and rested the side of his jaw on the top of her head and held her as she pressed herself to him tightly and sniffed softly, the sound followed by the sensation of a warm drop of water landing on his collarbone and rolling down the short distance until their bodies met again and was absorbed by her shirt. That decided it. "We're not doing the crests now or tonight."

"Don't be silly," she dismissed, shaking her head in the crook it was in. "I'm fine, Ashton, I just got a bit carried away is all."

The brunet studied the two beds and silently communicated with the dragons before responding and pulling away from her slowly, his face heating slightly as he did so. "You need a break....Um, l-lie down and I'll join you....We're just going to take a break from it and rest today." He could ignore the embarrassment and anxiety if it meant she'd relax and calm down. As far as he was concerned he had already put enough stress on her in the past four days to last an entire year.

"You're joking," Celine laughed softly if a bit tearily at that as she dropped her arms from around him. Maybe she needed to do this more often, crying apparently meant that he would cuddle with her. In bed. He was terrible about testing her control, she was starting to think that he was either trying to encourage her or drive her to madness.

Ashton shook his head in response even as he ignored his warm cheeks and went to the closet to locate more pillows and bring them over to the nearest bed. "They're going to let me try something out for a bit....If it doesn't work I'll either have to lay on my stomach or side. I won't leave until you want me to either way."

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Celine was grateful that her bedmate was such a deep sleeper when a gentle but insistent knocking pulled her from her own rest. She didn't get up for a few moments, taking her time in disentangling herself from him, taking in the sounds of his heartbeat and soft breathing and scent as she surrendered herself to the need to greet and turn away their visitor. Pattering to the door quietly she ran her fingers through her periwinkle hair before answering it to find Rena on the other side.

The younger woman took in the darkness of the room behind the mage as she opened the door slowly and bit her lip lightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I just stopped by because we were getting ready to go out for supper and thought that Ashton would want me to heal him before we all went out."

"It's quite all right, darling. We decided not to do the crests earlier and rest a bit instead," whispered the mage, trying to insure that the other occupant wouldn't awaken. "I'm afraid we'll both be begging off tonight. If you don't mind too terribly, could you bring something back for us? I'll pick it up later and pay you back for it."

"You know you don't have to do that. Will you be doing the crests tonight? I don't mind staying up a little." Rena was smiling now; she could see far enough into the dim room behind the other woman to know that the room's other occupant was in the bed closest to the door and bathroom, the very one that Celine always reserved for herself. This was so cute, she was definitely going to tell Claude and Bowman about this when she got the chance. Dias would find this type of gossip unnecessary, but he would undoubtably hear about it from the other two men, most likely the pharmacist.

Celine knew the smile that the other girl was wearing very well and she found it a bit difficult to not return it as fully as she wanted to. "I don't know. I'm going to try to talk him into it later. I don't want to get too far behind, after all."

"Okay. We'll see you later tonight, then." The Nedian waved lightly and turned down the hallway towards the men's hotel room to explain that Celine and Ashton wouldn't be joining them.

Celine returned her silent farewell gesture and shut the door quietly, shaking her head to herself as she did so. It appeared that the speed that gossip circulated between members of the group was still nearly as bad as it was in her hometown. She looked to the man she was sharing her bed with to make sure that he sleeping and smiled again, taking in his slightly reclined position and glad that neither him or his passengers had found it too uncomfortable. She was fairly certain that this was the first time since he had been possessed that he had been allowed to sleep like this, it had taken him some time to get comfortable and surrender to unconsciousness. Still, she wanted to change into her pajamas and would rather not shock him to death, so she made her way quietly to her things and began changing, not bothering to go to the bathroom as she did so and only turning her back to him to protect her modesty in the darkness.

She turned and covered herself when she heard a lazy yawn from the bed, almost running to the bathroom before she realized that it was only Gyoro. The red demon blinked sleepily at her as she frowned and waved a hand at him before he yawned again, a hint of his fire visible in his throat as he did so before he lazily curled himself back to hide amongst the pillows with his brother. The mage finished changing quietly before making her way to the bed and intertwining herself again, laying partially on his side and drawing her arm around his stomach, one of her legs moving over his again. She decided that he wouldn't awaken and that she could indulge herself a bit, so she kissed the new trail of crests on his collarbone lightly, drawing a soft murmur from him and causing his arm beneath her to curl around and pull her closer before he stilled again. Celine laid there smiling gently to herself as she took in this experience, hearing his heartbeat and soft breathing, feeling his warmth and the hand that now rested gently on her lower hip.

She could most definitely get used to this.

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Author's Note: I wrote up the scene with Celine and Ururun and moved it to a different file before posting this as I decided that some scenes should be left to the imagination of the reader. I might take this chapter down and insert it one day, I'm not sure. Ururun's visit has been planned from the start but had to be altered slightly after the last chapter threw me that curveball. I had no idea that he would be such a...whatever he is until I got comfortable writing him and getting in his head. Poor Ashton. It's bad enough that I went and gave him all of these issues from the results of a few in-game PAs (Seriously? You're pissed off that Rena returned your necklace to you?), now he's got to deal with me putting a pervert on his back. Also, just in case this gave anyone pause: Ururun referring to Gyoro as his 'other' is an intentional shift in the narrative, I apologize if the suddenness of it pulled you out of the story.


	7. Chapter 6

Summary: Everyone has to spend five almost uneventful days in Clik for the boat to El to depart, Gyoro wakes up in control of Ashton and does several very naughty things, Ururun stops in for another visit.

Warnings: This chapter is rated M as Gyoro demonstrates that he doesn't give a rat's ass about propriety in one of his scenes. I'm going to be officially changing the rating for this the next time I update since it seems to be becoming a regular occurrence.

Author's Notes: This chapter is late due to papers, mid terms, moving and a brief period where I ran out of ideas for Clik, which I solved by writing out a good deal of the next chapter.

Disclaimer: Can you believe it? Square-Enix still owns the Star Ocean franchise. I know I'm shocked and amazed by this revelation.

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Ashton wasn't very comfortable with this. He knew that the tailor wanted to check his measurements, but he still wasn't sure why the man had relegated the job to his daughter. The pretty, dark-haired young woman before him wasn't doing much to allay his unease, either; she kept glancing at him from the corner of her eyes with a little smile on her face as she asked him to position himself and stretched the measuring tape across him. He tried to distract himself as he looked around the shop, his eyes settling on Celine, Rena, the tailor and his wife as they talked by the front desk. Ashton wasn't sure what they were talking about, but apparently it wan't interesting to the girls at least, because they kept glancing at the young woman in front of him with expressions that told him that they weren't exactly overjoyed with the situation either. He sent Celine a pleading look as she glanced in their direction again before the tailor's daughter giggled and he turned back to her, finding her looking up at him from under her lashes and setting her pen and pad back in her pocket. She stepped towards him suddenly, her arms going around him as if she was going to hug him before stepping back, the yellow tape in her hands encircling his hips. He didn't know why he was blushing again, she'd done the same thing when she had measured his chest and waist, so he was certain that she was acting the way she was because she thought his reaction to it was funny. Still, he hoped that the tailor would come over quickly, the inseam was the only measurement that she hadn't taken yet and he_ really_ didn't want to hear her giggle like that when she did that one. Maybe he shouldn't have let Rena talk him in to replacing everything else that Celine had thrown away. They weren't exactly well-suited to his purpose, but he would have been fine with just civilian clothing underneath his robe until all of this was over if it came to that.

Really, this was all a bit much. The tailor and his wife had obviously never given any thought to their daughter's behavior and how unbecoming it was for a young lady to act in such a way with customers that she had only laid eyes on twenty minutes ago. Celine excused herself from the conversation and made her way over to their male companion as he turned back to the girl, looking very uncomfortable again as she made a show out of taking his measurements. She almost wanted to commend the girl for getting past the dragons as quickly as she had, it was a very rare occurrence as far as she was aware but she found the way the she was toying with him when it so obviously distressed him unacceptable. Maybe some company of a more refined sort was what the girl needed to behave herself properly. The mage made her way beside them and glanced at the measurements that the girl had taken so far as she jotted them down, faintly pleased to see that she had at least been right about the adjustments that she had made to '_the dress_,' as it was now known as in their little circle. "I see everything is coming along well. Ashton, darling, are you feeling well?"

Ashton nodded at her gratefully, the excess color draining from his face as the tailor's daughter looked between him and the new arrival and put her notes back, a curious look on her face. He almost wanted to tell her that Celine called everyone 'darling,' but stopped himself as whatever impression she had gotten from that had apparently cured her of the strange case of giggles that she had been afflicted with moments ago. He focused himself on the mage, even as the young woman between them instructed him to place his feet apart properly and kneeled down to get his inseam. "I'm fine, thanks. Do you know what Rena wants to do after this?" The two had a way of coming up with a day's worth of activities when left alone together long enough.

Celine almost wanted to watch the girl as she measured the inside of the brunet's leg, but found that she was far more interested in maintaining the eye contact that he had just established. She wrapped a lock of her hair around one of her fingers absently as she replied. "Well, she's decided that the twins are going to need a new wardrobe after all this is over. I've begged both of us off of that until later in the day, at least. I'm afraid that I'm not feeling all that well at the moment." That was a bit of a coded reply, though it was one that was understood between the two of them; the pair of ears between them didn't need to know about the crests being put in, after all. Ashton would need new clothing and another new robe once the dragons were gone as well, so the two women had already decided amongst themselves that Rena would be returning to the tailor's and doing a bit of shopping for the man before her while they were in their morning session. They had plenty of time as the next boat to Tenue wouldn't be arriving for five and a half days, they had already discovered that this morning. She wasn't going to lie to him about where his new clothing had come from when they presented them to him and they wouldn't have another debate about him paying her back if she could honestly say that it had been the younger woman that had bought everything this time.

"Ah," he began, running a hand through his hair in faint surprise, "after lunch, then?" He had been expecting much more than that even with the short amount of time that the two women had been alone together. It didn't really matter, he supposed, it was inevitable that they would come up with even more things to do while they took care of _'the twins.'_ Ashton almost couldn't wait to get back to the inn just so the two of them could talk and behave freely around one another again, it was a bit difficult to be casual when you had a member of the opposite sex invading your personal space and kneeling in front of you the way the tailor's daughter was at the moment. Maybe he shouldn't have been conversing with them as intently as he had been when the young woman before him had come over to drag him to the side, he could have sworn that she had introduced herself then, but it had taken him a while to drag his mind away from the others–mostly the mage–and devote his attention as fully as he should have to the girl. Celine had a way of distracting him at the worst times. At least they weren't in battle, it had always been a bit difficult to keep himself from looking over when he saw her crests flare from the corner of his eye and for some reason he had never been able to tune it out completely.

The mage had caught the girl's name and then instantly forgotten it as it was one of those names that were overwhelmingly popular for a year or two and then fell from the public's grace like it was rock dropped out of a third story window. She intensely disliked such names and the parents that gave them, it was as if they were seeking to crush their child's individuality before it even began to develop. "To be honest, I'm not quite certain about that. It would be nice, but I seem to have fallen slightly behind schedule recently and would like to catch up a bit first. Not that I'm upset about the why of it all, of course." Which was true; their nap in Cross had been quite enjoyable despite it's precursor and she had found it much easier to control herself around him after he awoke. Apparently she had just needed him to grovel and hold her for a bit to get her back to the frame of mind she had been when they had last traveled together. She smiled at him teasingly then, not really minding if he blushed at the moment considering that she would have been the one that had invoked the reaction this time.

He did blush faintly at the reminder, but he also smiled back at her and shook his head at her as he did so. The young woman between them stood again, looking between the two of them as she rolled up her measuring tape and fished her notes and writing utensil out, quietly dismissing him she did so. Nodding at her in thanks, he followed Celine back to Rena, the tailor and his wife, the Nedian instantly wrapping her arm around his protectively and leaning back behind him to look back towards where they had come from. Ashton knew better to glance over or ask why, he might be three years older than her but Rena had a habit of slipping into a role more befitting of an older sister around him at times. The older couple in front of them had apparently noticed and almost looked as if the might say something, so he decided that he needed to distract them on the off chance that the woman on his arm had actually taken offense to something and asked to review the notes that they had taken already.

Rena didn't really care why Jacobi had been behaving the way she had, she was still going to be glaring daggers at her until she got the message she was trying to send. The other girl averted her gaze, an uncomfortable expression on her face as she came to stand beside her father and handed him Ashton's measurements. The healer relented after another moment, letting her squirm for a bit first before she did so. She seemed to have gotten her meaning clearly enough. At least the tailor was familiar with their male companion's vestments to some degree, Ashton just didn't look right without all of his gear on. She was glad that she had talked him into replacing everything else as well, without his headband on his hair kept falling into his face and while it was cute, it just wasn't him so far as she was concerned. Rena had very strong perceptions of those that she held dear to her and unfortunately for him, he had been gone for so long that those perceptions had solidified. He was lucky he hadn't shown up in Arlia, Rena was certain that if he'd looked even half as bad as Celine said he had when she'd first laid eyes on him again that she would have kept everyone up all night grooming and babying and fussing all over him while her mother, Claude, Dias and maybe even Mayor Regis tore their hair out in frustration behind them.

He came to the conclusion that Rena wasn't going to let him have his arm back until they split up at the inn when she didn't relax her grip on him throughout the rest of the consultation. Not that he was surprised by that, she'd been taking every opportunity she could to hug and hang on him and everything else since he and Claude had called an end to their match in Mars. He really had stayed away for too long, it was almost like she was expecting him to disappear on them again. It made him very appreciative of his ambidexterity, though, as he was able pay the tailor the deposit and sign off on everything without dropping any money or having his signature look terrible.

That was one of the many things Rena liked about him, she could hang on him anytime she felt like it and knew that she wasn't going to be in his way too much. She had to be careful about which arm she was holding with Claude and Dias, she didn't want them to be handicapped by her, after all. He was going to go with them when they went furniture shopping, she had already decided that. Between him and the mage by his side, their new house would be _amazing_ once they were done. Oh, that reminded her of something. "We need to go window shopping at the local jewelers and see if they have anything worthwhile yet. You owe me two birthday presents now." She jostled him and smiled as they made their way out on to the streets of the rebuilding Clik, trying to make it clear that she was teasing him. Maybe. Just a little.

Celine shook her head at the Nedian from her position behind them, wondering if she realized what she had most likely done with that statement. Now he was going to work himself up into a state and go on a spree for every holiday and birthday he had missed in his absence. She was going to have to lock him in their room to keep him from spending all of his money or stumbling upon any barrels. Everyone had agreed after he let slip the fact that he hadn't indulged his little obsession in a number of months that he needed to be kept far, far away from large containers of every strip. They were going to break him of that silliness even if it drove all of them mad.

"Ah, y-yeah. I-I did, didn't I? Sounds good." He rubbed his free hand down his face, trying to hide his expression from the woman on his arm. He had been planning on doing that once all of this was over or maybe even sneaking out of the inn one day since they were stuck in town for so long, but he guessed that surprise was gone now.

That tone told her that he had decided to take her teasing seriously. "I was joking! Ashton, if you buy me anything I'll return it and hide the money in your shoes or something, I swear I will." The inn was located far too close to the tailor's, she was going to have to break in to their room to poke at him later. Silly Ashton. She gave him the corresponding look that went with that thought, pleased when he adopted the proper abashed expression after a second. The healer supposed that she needed to lock herself in the bathroom and practice her _'Ashton'_ face in the mirror, even she could tell something hadn't been quite right with it. Rena almost wanted to walk them to their room now that they were at the inn's entrance, but she had devious plots to fulfill and money to spend. She stopped suddenly and hugged him for a few seconds before relenting and turning to the mage, giving her an encouraging smile before casually making her way from them, heading in the wrong direction for now but trying to hide her intentions from a certain someone until he was inside the inn.

/////

Gyoro had awoken to find himself in possession of their host's body, looking out the nearby window and grimacing in discomfort as he realized just what it had been that had pulled him from his rest. He had been vaguely aware that Ashton had been dreaming of mating with the woman in the other bed again, but apparently he had switched mental positions with him before the effects of it had worn off. Ururun stirred as he began to shift himself off the stomach of the body he now controlled and was telling him to go to the bathroom to relieve the foreign arousal that was now coursing through their shared minds and bodies. He shook Ashton's head at him in response, not deigning to reply mentally to his other. The notion that such an activity needed to be hidden from a female that was courting their host so openly and aggressively was wholly irrational in his opinion and he had no compunctions about relieving his host before her as she slept and would have felt the same if she had been conscious. He distantly hoped that Celine would awaken as he resolved the situation that they found themselves in, if she did he would explain to her exactly what had caused their current state. He had decided that Ururun's considerations of their host's feelings during his discussion with her a few days ago had led his other's explanations of the situation to be inadequate; far too mild and understated for his liking.

Release obtained, he got out of bed as he ignored his other and his rebukes just as he had done while previously engaged. The woman had not awoken and he supposed that he should have been louder and less controlled as he shucked off the sleeping pants and boxers Ashton had worn to bed and gathered their host's grooming supplies from his bag; he would need to clean both his body and clothing before his host awoke or he would know what he had done and punish him again. Ururun might inform the man if he was sufficiently angry with him when Ashton arose, but the chances of that were slim as his other would most likely avoid doing so to spare their host from any emotional upset the knowledge would cause. Gyoro made his way to the small bathroom and turned on the lights, not bothering to shut the door as he cleaned the soiled clothing and set them aside to dry and turned on the shower. He was far too cold for comfort now, and even though the relief that the hot water would cause would be only temporary he preferred it over wearing the amount of clothing that would be required to make himself comfortable. He stood silently as he waited for the water to reach the desired temperature, turning slightly to look out the open door and towards the woman's bed behind him when he heard a rustling noise. Celine was apparently shifting in her sleep to avoid the light that now fell over her, the bathroom was situated directly across from her bed and the illumination seemed to be speeding her return to consciousness. He considered standing there and waiting for her stir fully from her slumber, but decided against it and entered the shower instead. The water had finally started to run hot and he would rather heat himself up again than wait for her to arise in the cool room that they were sharing.

Celine inhaled deeply and turned herself onto her back, shutting her eyes tightly at the light that had awoken her. She dimly thought that something must be wrong with Ashton, it was very out of character for him do such an inconsiderate thing. She sleepily called his name in a questioning manner before the sound of the shower running registered fully and she blinked herself awake in surprise. The mage looked to the small bathroom and noted his form, distorted by the textured glass and the steam that hung in the air and turned away quickly, eyes wide and mouth open slightly in shock as she stared down at her pillow. It had to be the one of the dragons, there was no other explanation for this that she could think of. The steam indicated to her that it was Gyoro this time, Ururun would be avoiding such heat like it were the plague. She was most likely going to need to call on the other men as the red dragon tended to be much more temperamental, stubborn and impulsive than his brother, he followed instinct and emotion rather than logic from what she had observed and heard from his host.

Gyoro turned off the water as it began to show signs of cooling before reaching for one of the towels that hung from the rack beside the shower and drying himself quickly to avoid the coolness of it evaporating as it slid down Ashton's flushed skin, ignoring his other as he continued to complain about the near scalding heat of the water he had just been subjected to. He stepped out, toweling at his host's hair energetically and made his way out of the bathroom, almost failing to notice Celine, her face buried in her pillow, body tensed and obviously awake. The demon tilted his host's head and considered her for a moment, his irritation at the bizarre behavior of mortals growing by the second before dropping the towel from his hands and crossing the distance between them, studying her intently as he stood over her. The woman buried her head even further into the pillow, obviously aware of his proximity to her and he succumbed to his impulses even as Ururun screamed at him through their link, roughly grabbing her and turning her to face him. "Why do you do this?"

"_Let go of me! What do you think_--" Oh, my. She really shouldn't have opened her eyes in anger and shock like she had, it wasn't as though she hadn't heard the towel fall to the floor. Celine supposed that she should be meeting the dragon's eyes at the moment, but she found her attention drawn to a much more interesting sight. She was so thunderstruck that she almost wanted to thank the damned demon for the lovely preview he was giving her before clarity returned to her and she struggled out of his grasp and scrambled from the bed, her face ablaze as she kept herself turned from him and sat on the floor, burying her head in her hands as she leaned back against the bed. "_Get off! Put some clothes on this instant!_"

Gyoro had been planning on doing exactly that before he had noticed her, but the heat from his shower had yet to leave him and besides, he was now severely annoyed and determined to understand this ridiculous behavior. The mage was much more straightforward than their host, he was expecting a clear explanation of this from her. "I will do so when you tell me why you are behaving in such a manner."

Oh dear Tria, the dragon was even more socially inept than his brother. She shook her head at him and laughed tightly at the absurdity of the situation, being sure to keep her face hidden although she had not heard him move from where he had been standing. This had to be a case of intentional ignorance on the demon's part, she decided; there was no way in the world that they could be attached to Ashton for this long and not have heard an explanation for such a widespread social norm. "You know very well why. Put some pants on right now before I come over there and slap you." She didn't particularly care if she struck the object of her affections this time, he would undoubtably understand and do far worse to Gyoro if he found out about this.

The demon had made a quizzical face at the laughter and then let out a derisive chuckle of his own at her threat. The woman and Ashton's other companions would do their best to avoid harming him physically and emotionally just as he and his other did, so while her threat may not be baseless given her apparent anger it may as well be considering how mild a punishment it was. If she did follow through on her threat he would restrain her until she calmed herself while trying his best not to cause her pain. It would not only upset Ashton and Ururun, but himself as well if he caused her such discomfort. They were all rather fond of the mage, in their own different ways. "No. Not until you answer me. Why do you insist on not looking at his body when you are so actively pursuing him for the purpose of mating?" Perhaps she would inform him if he narrowed the scope of his question.

She was almost thankful that Gyoro was apparently so attuned to his emotions that they were able to travel through Ashton's voice and body to some degree when he was sufficiently agitated, the slight arrogance that had inflected his amused response was making it all the more easy let go of her inhibitions. Really, how dare he refuse her in such a way and then ask such a question. "You cannot _possibly_ be _that dense_," she spat at him, taking her itching hands from her face in anger and fisting them as she spoke. "Get dressed _right now_ or I'll tell Ashton what _you've done_ when he comes back."

Now _that_ threat almost gave Gyoro pause before he realized that between his other and Celine he was now guaranteed another severe punishment from his host. Ururun's fury was blazing through his mind despite his silence, and his other would most likely be the first informer due to the interconnected nature of their minds. The situation being what it was now the demon wasn't much concerned with avenging himself upon Celine, he would save that for his other. Still, it may be best to try bargaining with the woman. He was genuinely curious for the cause of this behavior and Ururun was as well despite his extreme anger. "No. I honestly do not understand this behavior. If you agree to tell me why you are acting in such a manner I will dress him." Maybe he should offer to show his host what he had seen the other night in Cross, perhaps a compromise such as that would settle this.

That did it. Celine rose from her sitting position and made her way around the bed, her eyes glued to the glowing golden orbs that followed her intently as she made her approach. "_You have no right!_" She was yelling now, but she didn't care as she raised her hand and slapped him across Ashton's face as hard as she could, ignoring the spike of guilt that flared in her at the mark that appeared on his face immediately after. She continued on even as he swiftly grabbed her and forced her down on the bed, straddling her hips and pulling her hands above her head as she struggled against him. "_It's his body, his choice! You have no right to do this to him, I don't care if you don't understand! Yo-mmppph!_"

Gyoro ignored the persistent sting that radiated from his left cheek as he shifted her hands together and gripped both of her wrists in one hand before covering her mouth with the other as quickly as he could. "Calm yourself and I will release you." The dragon looked to the door behind them, straining to hear the sound of footsteps or voices in the hall as the mage thrashed below him. He turned back to her after several long seconds passed, deciding that her voice had not reached the others in the communal bedroom in the inn's other wing. His thoughts turned to her words as he considered them, turning them over and examining them in his mind, nodding to himself as he came to the conclusion that she was correct in her assessment. "What you say is true. Calm yourself and I will dress him." He still didn't understand the need to do so, but he had done something that his host would not only studiously avoid doing himself but would also be greatly angered and disturbed by him doing. It also violated one of the cardinal rules that the he and his other had agreed to at the very start of their relationship with him; he had done something while in full possession of Ashton that their host would obtain no benefit from either directly or indirectly despite any objections he would have to the act itself. So long as Ururun did not provoke him over this, he would not attack him as he had previously planned.

Celine tried to control her breathing as she slowly ceased her struggling and glared balefully up at the demon possessed body on top of her, trying to ignore his state of undress and the way he had positioned himself. Gyoro was very fortunate to be connected to and cared for by Ashton the way he was, she desperately wanted to kill the dragon above her and if not for his host would be attempting to do so at the moment. They should never have questioned and resisted Ashton the way they had when the dragons had initially possessed him and he sought their removal, even if it meant that he would not have joined them on their investigation. She wished wildly that she had slapped Rena the second she suggested giving them their names and every time the girl had ever defended them to the brunet. The mage pushed him away from her forcefully as he released her and started to shift himself off, the sound of him connecting with the floor not even registering as she ran from the room to fetch the others.

Gyoro blinked and shook his host's head to clear it before he looked out the opened door to the hallway beyond from the prone position he now found himself in. Celine was most likely going to inform their companions and bring them here, he needed to dress himself quickly before that occurred. Ashton would be displeased enough with the situation as it stood now and it was in his interest to mitigate what damage he could. He rolled to his side, relieving the discomfort that he could feel emanating from his true body, Ururun and Ashton's back and stood before hastily making his way to their belongings.

\\\\\

Celine ran down the hall to the communal sleeping room and made her way to the men of their group, passing Dias by as he had been roused from sleep by the noise she was making and was watching her as he got out of bed. She entered the aisle that separated Claude and Bowman and shook the blond awake, trying to keep her voice down. "Wake up, _wake up!_"

Claude jumped slightly in surprise and made his way out of bed as the mage turned her attention to Bowman, rubbing his hand over his face and motioning to look at his watch before realizing that he had taken it off before going to bed. "What happened?" _What time is it?_

"Gyoro's taken over Ashton." Bowman was too deep a sleeper for her liking at the moment, she pushed him roughly and was greeted with a moaned curse as he nearly fell out of the bed before catching himself. "Get in there before I _kill_ him."

Dias had started making his way to their room before Celine had even finished saying the demon's name, not bothering to collect his sword as he rushed down the hall. Claude followed him once he got over the shock of the woman's threat as Bowman made his way out of bed, cursing the dragon as he went. Dias entered the open door ahead of the other two men and stood before the first bed he encountered to block Gyoro's escape, narrowing his eyes at the demon that had Ashton's back turned away from him as he put a sweater on.

Gyoro turned to him and hissed both through his host and his own body, his temper flaring at the sight of Dias. He ignored the other two men as they entered and flanked the tall swordsman, narrowing his eyes in return and scowling at him. He would attack this one; they were both unarmed at the moment and though Dias had height and reach on his side, his host's strength was roughly equal to his from what he had observed and the man was not trained in the same manner that Ashton was and had never fought him before. Between their hesitance to harm him, the speed that his host possessed and both of their magics, he was confident that he would be able to do some measure of harm to the man before the other two dragged him off of him. Ururun was screaming at him again and he ignored it, activating Ashton's crests and tensing his body as he waited for the other man to move.

Unfortunately for him, the red dragon was not being subtle at all about his intentions. Claude and Bowman both rushed forward to restrain him, grabbing him and throwing the body of their possessed friend to the floor. They followed him down even as Gyoro butted his draconic head into Claude's and roughly pulled his host's arm from the stunned man's grasp to swing Ashton's now freed fist at Bowman, connecting with the pharmacist's jaw and scrambling from the floor quickly, ignoring the stabbing pain that now emanated from Ashton's back. Charging Dias, he feinted to the right and tackled the man hard from the left as he reacted, straddling him and punching his face several times in quick succession. He reared his fist back to strike him again as the dragon's own neck pulled free from his other's jaws and streaked forward to bite at the man before one of the men behind him recovered and grabbed Gyoro's neck and pulled it backwards harshly. The movement forced Ashton's shoulders back enough for it to merely graze Dias' jaw as he recovered beneath him, surging upwards and pushing him down, reversing their positions. Bowman leaned his full weight against him as he held the demon's neck to the floor and Claude rushed to help the other men hold him. Gyoro struggled wildly, not caring about the futility of his actions even as Ashton's consciousness arose suddenly and threw him back from his mental position, reasserting himself with uncharacteristic ferocity. His host locked his mind down so forcefully that for an instant the dragon could not even feel his own body as it continued to snap and thrash against Bowman's grasp.

Claude and Dias both stared warily down at the man as he stopped struggling and collapsed suddenly, his eyes closed in pain and breathing shallowly and rapidly as Bowman fought to hold down the demon. Ashton blinked his eyes for a fraction of a second before shutting them in pain again and the two men above him turned their attention to the dragon as they noticed the natural color of his irises. The brunet mentally cataloged the various pains in his body and started as he noticed the faint heat in his left cheek. It didn't take but an instant for him to realize just who had left that particular mark and he clamped down further on Gyoro's mind, completely severing the brothers' link with each other even as the demons' combined mental pain and shock ran through him and he pulled his own awareness of the red dragon's mind into stark focus, somehow managing to take control of Gyoro himself and reeled from the sudden dual mindedness he now possessed. A short, strangled scream escaped him, his hands flying to his scalp and neck at the intensified physical sensation of being strangled and the mental anguish that was coursing from both of the demons, not even realizing he was doing so as he tried to adjust and found himself failing. Ashton relaxed his grip on the dragon's consciousness slightly as his own began to stretch in a way that shocked and terrified him, breaking out in a cold sweat and going limp again as he relented and allowed the dragon to take control of his own body once more.

Bowman fell back from the dragon and his host as they both stilled, landing on his backside, his breathing almost as distressed as Ashton's as he stared in horror at the man, his mind racing. Tria, this was even worse than he'd thought. "_What the fuck was that?_"

Dias wished he had stopped to fetch his sword before making his way here, he fiercely desired to decapitate the demon at the moment. He relaxed his grip hesitantly as the dragon appeared to swoon and went completely limp beneath his hands, his brother appearing pained, dazed and confused as he let out a soft whine. The blue-haired swordsman refused to move his hands away completely, ignoring the pain and blood that emanated from his cheek, jaw, mouth and nose as he hovered his hands over Gyoro, tensed and ready to restrain him again at the slightest movement. He didn't bother to say anything as Ashton looked to be in no condition to answer or even register the fact that he had been spoken to, he appeared to be so drained and distressed that Dias was expecting him to faint in the same manner that his passenger just had at any moment.

Claude leaned back on his knees and blinked as he processed everything that had just occurred and his friend's apparent anguish. He came to the same conclusion Dias had and stood, making his way hurriedly to the door. "I'm going to get Rena." If he knew his fiancée, she was most likely comforting Celine at the moment.

The blond's movement managed to snap the pharmacist out of his shocked state enough that he returned himself to his original position and scooted forward between the dragons, ignoring their presence as he checked on Ashton. "Dias, turn on the lights." He checked the other man's pulse, pressing the first two fingers of his hand to the juncture of his neck and jaw as Dias stood hesitantly and made his way about the room to complete his task. "Ashton, can you hear me? I need you to respond." Bowman pried one of the prone man's eyes open and found it dilated far past the point that it should be given the now-lighted condition of the room. He would normally say it was due to pain, but he didn't know what else could be going on at the moment; for all he knew it could be from the dragons.

He really didn't want to be doing anything right now, he wished that Bowman would remember that he wasn't really a doctor and had just left him alone on the floor. "I'm here." He didn't know how he wasn't passed out or laughing or dead given everything that had been bouncing around seconds ago. Ashton tried to force his eye shut against the light of the room and winced it closed when Bowman finally took his hand away. He was going to wait until both himself and Ururun were clearheaded again and then interrogate him, Celine wouldn't have slapped them unless Gyoro had done something extremely threatening or inappropriate. "Is Dias here?" Hopefully he had his sword on him. The brunet knew he wasn't thinking clearly at the moment, but he wouldn't mind having certain options available right now.

The Arlinian wasn't going to wait for the dragon's to assume their golem forms anymore, that had been far too much for his comfort. He would wait for a private moment after the man on the floor had calmed down, though, it would be extreme to question him right now. Dias made his way over to the other two men and kneeled down beside them as Bowman removed his hands from Ashton, apparently satisfied now that his patient was speaking coherently. "What is it?"

"Do you have your sword?" Dias' voice was enough, there wasn't any need for him to come over the way he had, he wouldn't be opening his eyes for a while yet. Maybe never again. Yeah, that sounded nice.

Dias smiled at that even as Bowman began laughing loudly at the sudden turn. "No." He should have stopped to collect it, apparently Ashton was in the right frame of mind to indulge his murderous impulses at the moment. Not that he blamed him for it.

"Damn. You're kidding me." He didn't care if he cursed so strongly at the moment, it was a rare enough occurrence and none of the girls were in the room from what he had gathered. He might have made a joke about the other man slipping, but it was _Dias_ and he wasn't in the right frame of mind for it anyway. Ururun didn't seem to be adjusting to the forced separation from his brother very well and Ashton was doing his best to close his own mind to the demon's to lessen the turmoil that he was picking up from him and clear his own in the process. "What happened?" He almost blinked and turned to look out the door as he heard footsteps approaching before he remembered that it would mean opening his eyes again.

Bowman chuckled as he and Dias moved out of the way for Rena as she entered and hurried over, healing Ashton without even saying anything, obviously upset and flexing her hands spasmodically as her powers sparked. "Gyoro happened." Really, did anything more need to be said? At least his brother was okay. Completely insane, but okay. At least he wasn't Precis.

Great, now one of the girls was touching him and was–Oh, it's Rena. Now he won't need to get up and ask her to fix his back again. At least he had a shirt on this time, or he thought he did. Maybe his nerves were deadened from overstimulation, he felt raw and drained from whatever it was that Gyoro had done this time. Why did the demons have to be such polar opposites? It would be nice if both of them were as predictable as Ururun, at least that way he wouldn't have to worry when he woke up to find Gyoro in charge. "Is Celine okay? _Gyoro didn't hurt her, did he?_" He would definitely tell Dias to decapitate the demon if he had; he didn't care about how painful it would be or how much it would distress his brother, if his roommate had so much as a scratch on her Gyoro was _dead._

Rena worriedly bit her lip as she poured her magics into his body, not bothering to ask him what injuries he might have sustained. "She's in our room. She's all right, Gyoro didn't hurt her." She'd think his query was cute if it wasn't for the desperate, fearful tone of his voice and what had happened. Celine had told her that the demon had questioned and then restrained her when she refused, but she had the feeling the mage had left something very important out. "Do you want me to go get her?" It was a little silly to ask that as Celine and Precis had nearly followed her back before Claude stopped both of the other women to check on Celine and hear for himself what had happened. They'd probably be here once they were done talking.

He actually blinked his eyes open at that. "Um, ah....No, that's okay...." Ashton had almost said 'yes' before he came to the conclusion that the mage probably wouldn't want to be in the same room as him after whatever had just happened. They should probably stop sharing rooms after this. Besides, the inns in Clik charged far too much for private rooms and he'd feel better about this whole thing if Claude and Rena stopped_ spending so much_ on him. He should've known better than to let them corner him before they left Cross.

As if the pharmacist couldn't tell what the other brunet had been thinking when he opened his eyes and tensed like a deer caught in headlights, a sight he had recently witnessed thanks to Precis, _of course._ Bowman shared a look with Dias and Rena before looking down at Ashton and frowning at him. "Dias and me are going to help you get back in bed after Rena's done healing you up. We'll tell Celine that you're back and send her in." Yeah, so he still wasn't asking the other brunet if it was okay to help him. He'd gotten over it before and he'd get over it again if the others stopped playing to his odd defense mechanisms all the damned time.

Well, at least Bowman was still Bowman. That was nice. Now all he needed to do was start wondering aloud how the dragons digested the food they ate and how they defecated while hovering around his back until Gyoro got fed up and lit his hair on fire and it'd be just like old times again. Gyoro seemed to be unconscious at the moment, so the rest of it would need to wait. "That's fine." He figured that Celine wouldn't even want to bother with him at the moment, so if they tried to make her talk to him by force she would just set them all on fire. Or maybe she'd come in just to set him on fire and walk out. Hopefully the bed was extremely flammable, if he was going to burn to death he'd like to go quickly. "Someone needs to throw Gyoro over me before I get up. Maybe Ururun too." His balance would be better if they were over his shoulders than if they were laying limp against his back. It would be much more comfortable as well, the dragons' spines weren't meant to fall back that way and it might even pull another muscle if they just hanged like they would if they weren't moved.

Rena pulled her hands away from Ashton once she was confident that he was healed of whatever the red dragon might have done to him and turned her attention to Dias, placing one of her hands on her surrogate brother's cheek and healing him quickly as he helped Bowman move Gyoro over to his host's front. She looked at Ururun and petted him reassuringly, forgetting that she was doing the same to Ashton until he jumped slightly and shook his head to dislodge the phantom hand that was on his scalp. "Sorry, Ashton. I guess I forgot." Not that she _was_ sorry; it looked like he needed a hug very badly, but he probably wouldn't accept one until he had calmed down and sorted everything out a bit more. Rena made a mental note to tackle him for cuddles when he was up on his own and feeling more himself as he nodded at her and she got up to get out of the way.

It was always an odd experience when physically handling the dragons, they were almost as long as their host was tall and surprisingly light for their size. The affair was even stranger now that they were doing so with the knowledge that Ashton could feel it, which Dias' supposed showed just how upset Ashton was at the moment. It's not everyday that you hear a man, even one as disoriented, pained and infuriated as the heraldic swordsman had been tell you that they wouldn't mind experiencing the sensation of being decapitated if it meant the punishment and death of another. Dias moved one of his arms under Ashton's back, it's placement made easier thanks to the dragons and looked to Bowman to see if he was ready. The pharmacist glanced up at him and nodded shortly before they hauled the other man to his feet, Dias hunching slightly to keep the two shorter men balanced as they slowly began walking Ashton to his bed.

Ashton blinked as the other two men raised him to his feet and he came to the sudden realization that while Gyoro had put pants on him, he had apparently removed the underwear Celine had bought for him in Mars. That didn't make sense, unless it was the height of summer the red dragon covered his body in as many layers as possible while his brother often stripped him down as far as he could without leaving him completely nude. He was confused until the dampness of his hair registered and he noticed the towel on the floor over by the mage's bed, his brain stuttering to a halt before restarting at lightning speed. Why would Gyoro remove his boxers before dressing him unless he took a shower? That would make sense but then he'd still put them on again after he was dried off unless they had gotten wet or dirty someho–

"Ashton? Hey, are you there?" Great, now he was starting to act as stunned as Ururun was. Bowman wondered to himself if the blue dragon was somehow taking Ashton over despite his apparent mental state. If so, they'd need to lock Precis out of the room to keep them from influencing each other again. "How do you want to do this? Do you want to lay on your side or your stomach?" Please say the side, if he had to touch Gyoro again he'd start strangling him out of habit. The pharmacist distracted himself from his thoughts by pulling the covers down on the bed as far as he could to get them out of the way.

"Uh, ei-either s-side. R-Rena?" Please be there, if she'd already left the room and he had to ask Dias to get Claude then Bowman would ask him why he wanted his friend all of a sudden. He was already caught between blushing and blanching, if he had to explain it he'd probably have a stroke from how quickly his blood pressure would spike. Maybe he should never look at Celine again, he had the feeling that Gyoro had done a few things that he really, _really_ shouldn't have done. Which meant that Ururun had most likely also done at least one of those things as well. He had probably been the first, as a matter of course. He and the dragons were going to have a very long talk when they were all feeling better. Maybe he should have warned Bowman about the bedclothes, but he didn't see anything, so Gyoro must have been–He really needed to stop thinking right now. _Is there anything on the carpet?_

Rena was still in the room. Actually, she'd been hovering behind the three men as they made their way to the bed, watching Ashton for any signs of discomfort just on the off chance that she hadn't healed him enough somehow. "What is it?"

Ashton paused as Bowman and Dias helped him sit on the bed and let him shift himself on his own. "Um." Rena really should to be standing on the dresser, considering the demon in question it might have been the only safe place in the room. He really hated doing this to Claude, but he didn't think he could stand on his own for more than a few seconds at the moment and the blond still owed him a few outstanding favors if they hadn't exceeded their expiration date in the past two years. Like not telling anyone that he had ordered _that drink_ in Armlock that one time. "C-could you ask Claude to come here before Celine comes back?"

Bowman had to suppress the urge to ask the other brunet why he wanted to see Claude all of a sudden since Rena was still in the room and she might get him if she thought he was being too inquisitive. He decided to make a hasty retreat before his mouth ran away from him and got him in trouble. He would have to ask around later. This was going to be good, Bowman could feel it.

Dias studied Ashton as he placed the covers back over him while the other man scooted himself further into the bed. It almost looked as though he was doing his best to hide himself for some reason. There didn't seem to be any reason for it that he could think of, but then he took in Ashton's still damp hair, remembered that there was a wet towel on the floor in front of the other bed, how red Celine's face had been when she had stormed in to wake everyone up and how Gyoro had been getting dressed when he entered the room. This was one of the reasons that he liked the heraldic swordsman as much as he did, he was confident that he laughed around him more than he ever had, even before his parents and Cecille had been murdered by those bandits. He didn't care for the fact that most of the humor that surrounded Ashton came from his luck, but he couldn't deny that he was now focusing himself on Rena as he tried to hide a wide smile and keep himself from laughing again.

Why was Dias watching her so intently with that expression on his face all of a sudden? She shouldn't be asking herself that, Rena had a feeling that she didn't want to know. "Sure. I'll send him in as fast as I can. You just relax, okay?" Poor Ashton, she had the feeling that something absolutely _horrible_ had happened to him judging from the way he was acting and how Dias was keeping his gaze planted on her. The healer smiled down at him as reassuringly as she could before she led Dias from the room and started towards Celine and Claude, who were making their way up the hallway. "Um, Ashton wants to talk to Claude for a second first. Sorry, Celine." Rena stared after Dias for a moment as he hurried ahead and made his way towards...the exit? _Why is Dias in such a rush to go outside all of a sudden?_

"Uh," Claude began, looking at Celine quickly as they both stopped short and the mage nodded her assent at him even as she avoided meeting his eyes. "Okay." Yeah, he definitely hadn't gotten the whole story out of her and neither had Rena judging by the way she was examining the other woman's face and body language. He made his way inside Ashton and Celine's room, quickly looking around before focusing on the human-shaped lump in the far bed, Ururun poking out of the sheets and nudging at his pillow as he sleepily tried to make himself comfortable. "Ashton? You still up?"

"_Shut the door and get over here._" Right, they were obviously out of the loop about something; Ashton was almost never that blunt or commanding and he was speaking _way_ too quickly and quietly for this to be just a social call.

Claude did as he was told and made his way over to face his best friend's front to get a look at him but found his view blocked by even more covers. "What?"

Ashton popped his head out, unable to hide his blush anymore but refusing to let himself _not_ make eye contact with Claude so that he would realize just how serious his request was. "My swords are over there," he whispered urgently as he pointed to the corner where his equipment was. He wasn't going to make Claude touch anything, even if he was still hoping that he was wrong about all of this. "Get them and, um....I-I think my clothes might be in the bathroom, maybe. Wherever they are, find them and _hide them_ under my bed or something. _Please_."

The blond felt his jaw unhinge as he stared down at the brunet, coming to the sudden realization as to what all of this was about. Gyoro had been a bad, bad boy, apparently. He was pretty sure he had just stumbled into the best thing ever; prime blackmail material that he could use whenever he felt like it for decades to come. Ashton was going to be visiting Arlia a lot when all of this was over. Maybe if he played his cards right he could get him and Celine to move down there permanently or something. It'd be easier than talking Rena into moving to Mars, an idea he'd been kicking around for the past few days. "_Are you serious_?" Yeah, this smile wouldn't be going away anytime soon even if certain body fluids were involved.

"_Yes!_ _Of course I'm serious!_ There's a towel on the floor too, but I think it's okay and you don't have to worry about it _too_ much." He'd never really thought about how or when he was going to die before, but it seemed like the day was today and the cause would be embarrassment. He hated these dragons sometimes, he swore to Tria, he really did.

He hadn't noticed the towel when he had been in here before given everything that had been going down, so he straightened himself back up and looked around until he found it. He couldn't help it, once he realized where it was and what that most likely meant he started laughing loudly enough that the girls could probably hear him out in the hall. "_So, Celine got a look at the goods, huh?_" This was the best day ever. It wasn't like he'd never seen Ashton naked before, they had shared rooms constantly and it had become a common enough sight after the brunet had gotten over being undressed in front of him. Claude was pretty sure that they could pick each other out of crowd just off certain body parts. That wasn't normally something you'd hear a guy admit to, but it wasn't like he was saying it out loud or anything.

He couldn't really speak coherently for a while after that, he was stuck sputtering until the blond was already halfway across the room and picking up the towel. This was the worst day ever. "_Shut up! They'll hear you!_" He was having a heart attack right now, he was sure of it. Goodbye, cruel world. Maybe the afterlife would be better. It had to be, this was_ way_ too much for one person to be expected to bear.

Claude managed to tone it down from a full roar to a constant stream of giggles that tumbled forth as he moved into the bathroom and discarded the towel in the hamper. He hadn't bothered with the swords, unless Ashton was like a fire hydrant or one of those three-hundred-and-sixty-degree sprinklers or something he should be able to pick his other stuff up somehow without touching anything. The blond blinked down at the boxers and sleeping pants that were laid neatly on the counter and took in the fastidious way they had been spot cleaned and set out to dry. He couldn't stop himself this time, he broke out in uproarious laughter, even louder than before as he hid his face in one hand and curled the other around his stomach and bent forward. His face hurt. His stomach, chest and sides hurt. He loved Ashton so much, this was the funniest day of his life and he'd only been up for less than ten minutes already. It was a good thing he had sent Precis out on the pretense of getting breakfast despite everything being closed at such an early hour, otherwise she might have barged in just to see what was so funny by now. He grabbed the clothing and waded them up, not caring since they had been cleaned to such a painstaking degree already and tossed them in the hamper as he made his way out, his friend glaring at him as he came over and laid himself across the foot of his bed.

Ashton didn't really care anymore either, he pulled the pillow out from under himself and smacked Claude with it the best that he could without hurting himself or disturbing Ururun in the process. The pillow barely grazed the blond's shoulder, but he figured given the man's position below his feet it was good enough for now. He'd have his revenge when they sparred later, Claude was still a little rusty and he was going to take full advantage of that the next time they went around together. "You can _get out_ now. _Anytime._"

"Oh, so you're ready to see _Celine_ again, huh?" The brunet was still glaring down at him so Claude made sure to wiggle his eyebrows in a very suggestive manner at him as he joked. He hadn't gotten around to talking to the other man about this yet, he'd mostly stuck to teasing and poking at him when they were alone since he was hoping that Ashton would stop denying how he felt for the mage and realize that the feeling was mutual if they were alone together enough. Claude had a hunch that if they discussed this and he didn't do and say everything exactly right his friend might get so discomfited that he would completely shut down on him.

He blinked at the other man for a minute, refusing to process just what the gesture that had accompanied the words implied. "Oh. _Oh, Tria_. She's going to _kill me_." Maybe he could get Claude to throw him out the window or hide him somewhere. He fell back to the bed and stared longingly out the aforementioned planes of glass. There was safety on the other side of them, he was sure of that. Unless someone had been looking in and saw Gyoro, then nowhere was safe anymore. Maybe the closet would be a better choice.

"What? Oh, _Come on._ She knows it wasn't your fault, why would she be _mad_ at you?" It was apparently time to play at being a psychologist with Ashton for the millionth time. He'd been wondering when he would be able to dust off this imaginary degree of his again. He should probably stop by Linga one day to see if he could get accredited and make it official.

"Are you _kidding _me? I–Gyoro just–he–I–she–and..._.She's going to kill me!_" He was so, so dead. Too bad he hadn't made out his will yet. "You can have all my stuff if you want it." There, that took care of that. He supposed he didn't need to worry about the funeral arrangements, he was most likely going to be cremated so all they'd need to do was sweep his ashes in a dustpan and dump them in the harbor once it was over.

Claude had almost recovered enough to respond to him before he went and declared his will like that. He chocked back the laugh that tried to escape and breathed for a few seconds to calm himself before leaning up and looking to the door. "Look, if she was that pissed off do you _really_ think she'd be out there waiting to check on you? We were going to come in together before Rena stopped us out there." Besides, she'd probably appreciated the _'free show'_ that Gyoro had given her. He was pretty sure that had been what she'd called it when they had sent her in to talk to Ururun before they left Mars. No wonder she had been avoiding everyone's gaze so much. He almost wondered if Celine had caught Gyoro in the act before deciding that she hadn't, the demon would have needed super speed to clean him up the way he had and get dressed before they had gotten here and tackled him to the ground. Unless she was so shocked that she had just sat there and watched him go at Ashton for awhile _and_ take a shower, but that was _way_ too out of character and almost made him laugh again, so he did his best to jump off that particular train of thought the second he realized he had boarded it.

"Oh. Together?" That gave him pause for a second before his mind supplied him with an excuse. "Maybe she didn't care if she had a witness." He wouldn't have if he was her.

He was glad that Celine wasn't here right now, it meant that Ashton would fold in a couple seconds instead of standing his ground like he always did when she was around. "Look, she doesn't want to kill you. Stop being an idiot. She knows it wasn't you and that you didn't have any control over Gyoro, so why would she be mad at you if she knows all that?"

"Um, well...." The brunet drifted off, trying to come up with something and falling short. Why did Claude have to have such a good point? Time to change tactics. "I still don't think we should be sharing a room anymore. That was _too much_."

The blond wasn't too big on that idea. Even excluding the underlying, top-secret reason for the arrangement in the first place, they would still need a private room for Celine to torture and molest Ashton in–he was hoping she'd start molesting him soon, the way this was looking it might be the only way to get her interest through to him–and give them a place they could hide out away from everybody while they dealt with the stress that it put them through. Celine had told him the other day that it was taking longer for the dragons to send Ashton into one of his spells, but he still didn't want them to be around other people while they did it, it would probably get them kicked out of the inn if the management found out what they were doing. "I think that might be something you two need to talk about. Even if you're not sharing a room you'll still need a place to do the tattoos and there are no private singles here so our money situation isn't going to improve either way." He made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat to let Ashton know he wasn't done yet as a question began forming in his mind. "Do you think something like this'll ever happen again?"

It looked like he had lost this round as well. He wished that he could lie convincingly, but he hated himself when he did it and was absolutely terrible at it and knew it, so.... "Uh...Probably not. I guess I'm going to have to lay down some new rules with them, but Ururun never really _does_ anything most of the time and Gyoro will figure it out after I _punish him_ enough." Which he was still in the process of doing. The dragon might have passed out from the shock of everything, but Ashton hadn't; he had his grip locked on the demon's mind as strongly as he could hold it before he took him over completely again. It baffled him that he had managed to do that somehow, and he was still surprised that he had adjusted to this new level of control he was exerting over Gyoro so quickly, the last time he had made this type jump he had gotten a migraine less than a minute afterwards. He didn't like it one bit, it seemed like a new aspect or consequence of their possession of him was popping up every other week now.

"Well, no offense, but if that's the case then I'm going to say no unless Celine says that she doesn't want to do this anymore." Claude looked over at him to see how he took that, nodding at him when he didn't seem too distressed by the veto and smiling slightly when he sighed and nodded back at him. His friend was doing an amazing job of coping with all of this considering everything he'd been through, so he was pleased with the situation and ready to go find Precis and apologize for sending her out for breakfast at four in the morning. Plus, him and Celine still needed their quiet time together. Maybe if she was upset enough they'd wind up snuggled together and sleeping in the same bed again like Rena said they had in Cross. He needed to buy a camera and sneak back in here in a couple hours to check on them. If it came down to the two of them hashing this out it would probably help if he had all the evidence he could get. "You ready to see Celine?" He was going to tease Ashton mercilessly once the two of them were a couple, it was getting harder and harder not to call the mage different cutesy nicknames when they were talking about her.

"I think so," Ashton grimaced, looking down at Gyoro in front of him and tapping a finger roughly to his forehead to wake Ururun up. They needed to move the red dragon and turn around to face the door, there was no way that he was going to make her look at the demon unless she absolutely had to. "Can you do me a favor?"

He had been wondering what had made the brunet contort his face like that until he realized that Celine would have to make her way around the bed to talk face-to-face with him and that she'd also have to tune out Gyoro as well while she did it. "Yeah, no problem." Claude grabbed the red dragon and lifted him as Ururun stirred and helped Ashton shift so that he was facing door and the dragons were hidden behind him once they both laid down again. "You're welcome. I'l send her in, okay?" He figured he might as well preempt the thank you that Ashton was probably going to throw at him before he exited the room and motioned for Celine to go in, shutting the door behind her as she went.

Celine hovered before her bed as Claude closed the entrance behind her, not quite sure what to do or say and fighting to keep another blush at bay now that they were alone together in the same room again. She was thankful that Ashton had positioned himself so that neither of the dragons were visible, it made looking at him a little less difficult, though it did little to diminish the discomfort that both of them were obviously feeling at the moment. This was silly, between the laughter that she and Rena had heard out in the hall and by the way that his face was ablaze as he burrowed himself further into the sheets of his bed, it was obvious that he either knew or had very strong suspicions as to what Gyoro had done. The mage made her way to him silently as she bypassed her own bed and stood before him for a second, frowning at the dragons on his back that were now visible to her. He was more towards the middle of the bed than anything, and there was plenty of room on either side of him, so she laid herself down beside him and brushed his hair out of his eyes even as she ignored the way that her own face was warming now. It would be best to dispel this new discomfort between them quickly and if doing so required pushing both herself and him past their current boundaries and hesitancy then she would do so. "Darling, are you all right?" She really was going to have to come up with a new pet name for him one day, _'darling_' was a bit too generic given how she applied it to everyone she had ever met.

It took him a while to respond to that, between the shock of their sudden closeness, her initiation of it, the gentleness of her touch, her flushed cheeks and that miniscule part of him that had honestly been expecting her to enter _absolutely furious_ with either him or Gyoro, he had found himself temporarily lost for words. "Um....I think I should be asking you that." Well, it looked like Celine had managed to knock the stutter out of him again. If she hadn't been touching him the way she was the heat in his face probably would have left along with it. He never would understand the ways that she affected him sometimes. Well, all the time, but he wasn't ready to admit_ that _to himself yet. "Gyoro didn't hurt you, did he?" Rena might have denied the fact and he himself couldn't detect any injuries or bruises, but that didn't mean much; he didn't see anything, but that was mostly because he was trying to keep his eyes planted to hers again. He wished that she would dress a little more conservatively sometimes, this was ridiculous.

If anyone were to ask her about the selection of travel clothing and sleeping attire that she had brought on this little trip she would openly admit that every option had been selected with a certain goal in mind, that little moment in the hallway outside her room and her conversation with Ururun had been all the encouragement that she needed. She really was absolutely terrible at times. Still, she couldn't quite hide the smile that was forming in response to the way he was obviously struggling with his gaze, nor could she find the motivation to position herself at a different angle. She rather enjoyed his reactions and was hoping that if she wound him up enough that he would forget himself and manage to be _horribly_ forward one day. He just might do it, too, he did have a way of surprising her in incredibly_ wonderful_ ways, after all. "I'm fine. He didn't hurt me." She slid her hand from his face down to his side, pulling the covers down with it as she was not bothering to keep her hand over top of them. The smile nearly slid from her face when she realized he had somehow acquired a sweater in the short time that he had been from her sight. She would much rather be touching him directly at the moment, it seemed that whenever she was touching him anymore it was while she was putting the crests in and that didn't leave any room in her mind to enjoy the closeness between them.

That smile_ worried _him; it always evoked warring, polar responses in him that left him temporarily paralyzed and unsure. There was a part of him that wanted to run when he saw it and another that wanted to do something that would keep that expression stuck there on her face and didn't much _care_ about what would need to be done to accomplish that or the consequences of those actions. Most of the time he was oddly thankful that the two competing impulses stalemated each other as often as they did, but right now he so off that he almost wanted to pick an impulse and just _go_ _with it_. He really needed to start distracting himself somehow. "What'd he do? When I came around he was being pushed down to the floor by Dias." Humiliation should do the trick. He was fairly certain that he wasn't in the proper condition for his body to respond the way it wanted to, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Why did she have look at and touch him like that?

The question froze her in place for an instant as she came to the realization that while she desperately wanted to stretch the truth or even lie to him, that she wouldn't be able to. Not about this. That nervous energy was coursing through her again, but she didn't want to break their connection. Celine adjusted her position as she scrabbled the covers back with her free hand and feet and pressed herself against him, intertwining her legs with his, the arm already around him tightening and fisting in his sweater as the other fell to support her neck and outline the top of his head, her fingers toying with his hair. He wasn't going to be getting away from her now, she needed this support as much as he did if they were going to be discussing this as directly as his query led her to believe. "He....He asked me a _very_ inappropriate question. Several times, in fact. I lost my temper and....Well, I'm afraid I slapped you." She was so very, very glad that hideous mark was gone from him now. "After that he held me down on the bed until I calmed down a bit." She hated admitting all of that, not just to him but to herself as well. She was feeling absolutely horrible again.

"Oh. It's, uh...." He vaguely realized that he didn't want to ask what the question had been if it had wound Celine up so much, but right now the majority of his attention was being taken up by the hand in his hair and the way she was now pressed up against him. The brunet shifted as best he could considering how the mage had entangled herself with him and the position of the sleeping dragons on his back, coming to rest at a slightly tilted angle on his side that he didn't normally assume. He was relieved that his mind was still very removed from Ururun's and that Gyoro was in such a state that the sensations that they were sending back and forth were muted even with the closeness of their psyches at the moment. He was almost certain at this point that Gyoro was going to be locked down the way he was for at least the rest of the day now, if not a bit of tomorrow as well. "Was that all that he did?" He really needed to be humiliated soon; this contact was far too intimate given how sensitive his body was becoming as it recovered and he wasn't together enough to pull any of the normal mental tricks that he used to calm himself down.

She had noticed. Not that there was anything _stirring_ at the moment, but he was shifting himself in a way that made quite plain which area of his anatomy he was seeking to move away from the pressure of her body. Celine smiled into his chest and nearly followed him before she reigned herself in, almost missing the question as she marveled to herself just how quickly and dramatically this situation had reversed itself despite the subject matter of their discussion and the earlier events of the morning. She found herself almost wanting to thank the damned dragon again, this was quite a lovely turn they had found themselves taking. "I'm a bit confused, darling. Could you tell me what exactly it is that you're after?" She wound a length of his hair around one of her fingers and gave it a gentle tug, unable to restrain herself as fully as she should at the moment. She really was terrible, here she had just been commending herself last night on the control that she had been exhibiting since their night in Cross, but apparently all of that hard work was being thrown out the window at the moment. The mage decided to blame the heraldic swordsman for all of it as she mentally added it to the pile of things that she would get him back for once all of this was over, the dragons were separated from him and she could do with him as she pleased.

She just had to start picking on him again, didn't she. Between the way she was _leaning_ against him, the soft breath and evil smile he could _feel _through his sweater, the _tone_ of her voice and the way she had just_ pulled _his hair, his mind was _gone_ now. He hoped she was happy, he really did. Maybe she actually _was_ going to kill him, just not in the way he had expected and been preparing himself for. It took him longer than he wanted to admit to, staring blankly over her head at the door, but he finally managed to pull his thoughts back together from the disarray that had sent them into. He licked his lips nervously, deciding that if she was going to do this then he was at least going to make himself a little more comfortable physically to make up for a bit of his mental discomfort. He shifted his half asleep arm from underneath him and curled it under her head, trying to give her a stern look and failing miserably as she smiled at him _like that_ again and adjusted herself to his new position, looking very pleased with herself as she did so. Celine was _dangerous_, he'd known that for a long, long time now, but he still wasn't able to separate himself from her when they were together and that confused him to no end. Maybe he needed to go to Linga, one of those psychology professors might be able to tell him what was wrong with him if he talked to them long enough. "Ah...." Wait, what was it he had been asking?...Oh, right. Maybe he shouldn't have moved like that, now he definitely wasn't going to be able to run and hide if the answer was what he thought it was going to be. "Was...was Gyoro wearing anything? At....At all?" Please let him and Claude be wrong about this. Dias too, he knew the look that had been on his face before he and Rena left the room all too well, even if it hadn't been directed at him. Actually, that was how he could recognize that expression as quickly as he had, even being as distracted as he'd been. Dias never looked directly at him when _that look_ came over his face; it was a complete reversal of Rena's 'Ashton' look and was used in the exact opposite manner as well. The two of them really should have been siblings or blood relations of _some sort_, there were far too many little traits that they shared like that, even as mutated as they were.

_Well, now_. Someone was being _very brave_ today, weren't they? It really was a shame the dragons were still there, sleeping or not, otherwise she would be rewarding him very handsomely for that at the moment. She would ask him if he really wanted to know that, but doing so would be an answer in and of itself, so it was silly to do so. "Well, I think he was wearing a towel before he noticed I was awake and dropped it." The mage didn't really think that Gyoro had been _wearing_ the towel so much as drying his host's hair with it, if the scrabbling sound and the height that it seemed to have been dropped from if the sound of its landing was any indication. She was also fairly certain that his hair had been rather messy, but she hadn't really paid much attention to that, what with...everything else that had been demanding her attention. "At least I think he dropped it. I tried to keep my eyes shut for most of it, so I really can't say anything beyond that." Fine,_ now_ she was lying. It was for a good cause, though; she really didn't want to be the one responsible for his death, after all. Besides, she had hedged enough and left a bit of a hole in her claim that was easy enough to spot, it was now up to him to determine whether or not he wanted to go down that particular rabbit hole.

"I see." Gyoro wasn't going to be free from Ashton's mental control until the boat to Tenue arrived, then. Two-and-a-half days at his current level of mental confinement was incredibly harsh and far, _far_ beyond any severity or length of punishment that he had ever meted out to either of the demon dragon brothers, but at this point he felt fully justified. If the demon had just masturbated him in private then they would have gotten a very strong talking to and he would have ignored their presence for a bit, but Ashton was sure now that he hadn't. Unlike his brother, Gyoro gave little consideration to social norms, especially ones that he found useless or confusing. He was also certain that the dragon had done so somewhere in this very room in front of a sleeping Celine–he was confident that she would have had a much more difficult time explaining everything if she _had_ seen or heard him do it–before he took a shower to clean him off, came back to the bedroom to find Celine awake, harassed her while naked and restrained her like that–still completely nude and most likely on top of her judging by the way she described it–before letting her go, dressed him very haphazardly and then attacked Dias for something that he had explained to both of them a thousand times in the past year _was not actually a threat, but a challenge_. Part of it was his fault, he supposed; if he hadn't been caught off guard the way he was when Dias had said that and if he could bring himself to ignore the dragons' presence and do certain things himself they probably wouldn't feel the need to do so–to _'protect' _and _'take care' _of him that way–but he couldn't and still found this new information disturbing. At least it was one less thing he would need to teach them, he guessed, but it was still too much.

If Celine had been asked what reaction she had been expecting from him when she explained that he had been completely nude during her encounter with Gyoro, she would have given a number of different possible scenarios. One that she would not have listed, however, was that he would slowly go impossibly still beneath her, slightly tense but still somehow relaxed and speak in a slow, calm manner that she couldn't really describe. She raised her head at that to look at him and found herself coming to a sudden understanding of just what Bowman meant when he made those little comments of his about being glad that he wasn't one of the dragons. Really, she almost thought that he had been possessed again, she'd never seen such a look on his face or heard him use that tone of voice before in all the time that she'd known him. "....Ashton?"

He jumped at that, pulled from his thoughts as the situation he was in _slammed _back in place, his face aflame again as he hid it behind the hand that wasn't trapped beneath her even as his mouth moved of it's own accord to say something despite his frozen vocal cords. Now fragments of her previous admissions were volleying back and forth inside his head over and over, _'I tried to keep my eyes shut for most of it,' _and_ 'After that he held me down on the bed,' _on an endless loop. This was....This was_ insane_. _Gyoro had–She had–_Oh, _thank Tria_, he was pretty sure he had just felt his mind finally break.

She was temporarily stunned when he seemed to fall back to himself so quickly, but then she let out a relieved laugh and hugged him as fiercely as she could given their position. It was very nice to have him back and himself again, even if he had never truly left and had simply been doing or experiencing whatever that had been just now. Celine had a feeling the Gyoro was most definitely not going to be in Ashton's good graces for a while and she didn't mind that at all, so far as she was concerned he deserved everything his host deigned to send his way. Really, how _dare_ he ruin that for her.

At least now he was in absolutely no condition to respond to the way she was pressed against him again, he really would lose his grip on his sanity if that happened. "He....You...._You saw_...." He really shouldn't have moved his arm under her like that; he really, really wanted to run and hide at this new revelation. Celine had seen him. Naked. _Completely_. The only person that had seen that since he had hit puberty was Claude, and that had taken more than a month of friendly gibes, constantly sharing hotel rooms with one another and the blond disrobing in front of him without a moment's notice or the slightest warning. He wished a lightning bolt would tear through the inn's ceiling and strike him right now. Without hurting Celine, of course, but being struck by lightning was sounding very good at the moment. It could have been worse, he supposed, she could have woken up while Gyoro was–_No_.

Oh, if only she knew where exactly his thoughts had been leading at the moment, her reaction to _that_ knowledge would have most definitely been a sight to behold. She laughed again and kissed him lightly on the juncture of his jaw and neck through his hair, not anywhere near as in control of herself as she should be now, but too relieved and caught up in everything to care. So he had managed to put everything together, now, had he? She almost wanted to feel sorry for him, but she couldn't bring herself to even attempt it at the moment. Maybe later. "_Yes. Yes, I did._" She couldn't help but keep the warmth, smugness and amusement in her voice as she confirmed his fears, to be honest, she hadn't made any effort to hide them at all. Thank Tria the dragons were either so out of it that they couldn't bother to arouse themselves through all of this or had learned their lesson and were studiously ignoring it all. If one of them dared to break this little spell they were under she _would_ kill them, if only out of pure spite.

She...She'd just_ kissed _him. His mind came crashing to a halt and barely managed to restart itself when she started talking again. He couldn't quite decode the tone that had accompanied her confirmation, so he discarded it instantly out of instinct, some part of him knowing that he _would_ have a mental breakdown if he was allowed to fully dissect and understand it under the present circumstances. The words were bad enough as it was, anyway. He didn't know how he had gotten used to her seeing him without a shirt on so quickly, and they were going to be starting on his legs today, but this was still _way_ too much for him to process fully. "_Oh, Tria_. This is...."

'_Oh, Tria,' indeed._ Really, she supposed that she should be invoking Gyoro at the moment, but she wasn't feeling charitable towards the demon _at all_. The brothers were going to have their own house far, far away from them if she had her say in the matter. Unless they managed to adapt much more quickly to humanity than she was anticipating, but even then they would be living next door or with her parents as far as she was concerned. She shouldn't be thinking like this to herself, as if they were going to be married, but for once she wasn't opposed to the idea at all; Ashton's wanderlust and the buried independent streak that he hid from the others most of the time was just as strong as her own from what she had observed and he was far from controlling even at his most assertive. The mage kissed him again in the same spot as before, partially to comfort him but also to drag herself back to the present. "It's all right darling, it really is. Calm yourself a bit, you're going to give yourself a heart attack if you keep this up." She'd hate to have the mood broken in such a way and to have to drag Rena in here again. Celine ran her hand up and down his heavily clothed side lightly, trying to soothe him and dissipate a bit more nervous energy, the hand playing through his hair wasn't enough anymore.

He couldn't quite understand how exactly she thought he could do that with her _touching and_ _kissing him like that. _She had picked bad places for it as well; he was ticklish in those spots–okay, he was ticklish almost everywhere, he couldn't help it–and he was having some trouble keeping himself from squirming against her when she did it, and he _really_ didn't need to be adding friction to everything else that was going on right now. If she kept this up he was going to have to bolt from the bed despite any discomfort it would cause her. He had never wished he wasn't male before, but this situation was starting to give him a fierce desire to have been born the opposite sex. "Okay. Could you please stop doing that? It tickles." Among other things. He tried to control his breathing even as she raised her head, the expression on her face telling him that he _really shouldn't have said that._ It looked like she had just taken a mental note and filed the information away for future reference. He wasn't quite sure how to catalog the feelings that her touch and the look had caused, so he shut his eyes and tried to move the conversation back to the previous topic. It was easier for him to deal with than all of this, at least. "Um, do you think you could forget what you saw?" _Please?_

Celine bit her lip lightly when he closed his eyes and took in the tightness of his voice and the expression he wore and looked up and down his body slowly, a sneaking suspicion creeping up on her that tickling wasn't the only thing that it was doing to him. She really did need to reign herself in, she was skirting the edge of loosing every ounce of self-control that she possessed and ravishing him now, dragons be damned. They really were more of a bother than they were worth, especially at the moment. Why he thought that she was capable of forgetting such a thing escaped her, she almost wanted to ask him if he believed that he would be able to forget if he had seen her naked. If he said _'no'_ to that even out of embarrassment or concern for her feelings she would be tempted to either slap or kiss him again and neither of those options would be in their favor at the moment. He really was absolutely terrible about testing her self control, wasn't he? "I'm sorry, Ashton. I'm afraid that I have absolutely no idea as to what you're on about." She adopted an innocent expression spoke, moving off him slightly and bringing her head back down to lay where it had been before everything had spun out of control. Her hand was still playing with his hair, if a bit slowly now as she calmed, but she had stopped the movements of the other, laying it against the material that covered his side instead. They could be close like this at least, she really didn't want to separate herself from him unless she had to. She wished she could classify that night in Cross as either good or bad but she couldn't; too many of the old boundaries had been broken then, and even if it did make this whole situation more difficult for her it at least let them be close like this without discomfort. Or they could be if she stopped _pushing_ at him.

He blinked his eyes open at her response, relieved but also somehow distressed when she pulled away slightly. It looked like he did need to make that trip to Linga, then. At least this time he wasn't making sense to himself in a wholly new way. Maybe she had gotten her hands on an aphrodisiac again, he wondered if that could explain it. It would have to be some new variety, or maybe she was just rationing it out better this time. That was a ridiculous thought, there was absolutely no reason she would wear such a thing around him, he didn't know why he was entertaining the idea at all. He moved back to his original position as well, following her as he did so and smiling at her gratefully even as the arm that wasn't supporting her head came to rest over her side as he relaxed. Even if she was just saying that–which she was, he wasn't _that _delusional–it still made him feel a bit better. "Thank you. I know it's..." he trailed off, not quite knowing how to say it. He really didn't deserve to have her or any of the others as friends what with everything he was putting them through, but he felt even worse about what he had done and was still doing to her. He'd have to make it up to her one day.

/////

Ashton had decided to let Ururun take full possession of him to _'visit'_ and practice his speech on everyone, which led Bowman to believe that Anchors was just as crazy as the demons and Precis. At this point he was certain that he, Dias and maybe Celine were the only sane people in their entire group. That wasn't what was bothering him at the moment, though. What was bothering him was the bizarre suspicion that he was watching some sort of connection form between the dragon and the inventor as they skimmed through the books they had just bought and whispered excitedly–okay, Precis whispered excitedly while Ururun continued to execute his flawless Noel impression–amongst themselves. Had he said that he hoped that whatever was going on between Celine and the dragon's host was platonic? That had been child's play compared to this, he was pretty damn sure that if _this_ didn't stay platonic after the whole ritual thing he was going to lock _'Urie'_ up somewhere far, far away from Precis to keep the planet from exploding from the sheer _wrongness_ of it all. At least it looked like Gyoro was still being punished despite his host's subdued mental state, the red dragon didn't seem able to keep his head up for more than a few seconds at a time and was apparently so distressed by whatever it was that Ashton was doing to him that he let out a small, mewling whine every other minute or so. The pharmacist didn't care how pathetic he sounded or looked curled loosely around his host's shoulders and neck like he was, Bowman was still having to avoid looking directly at him to keep himself from pointing and laughing at the damned demon like he wanted to.

Rena didn't know which urge was stronger at the moment; she wanted to tell Bowman to stop glancing over at the two bookworms seated at the opposite end of the table, but she was also fighting the incessant impulse to drag Dias out of the restaurant and plead for the dragons' lives. He was turned away from her, so she wasn't absolutely positive about her assessment, but he seemed to be ignoring his dinner and watching Ashton's possessed body very intently. At least Ururun and Precis seemed to be oblivious to it but she wondered if Ashton was, otherwise he would be having a conniption without them even knowing it. She turned back to Claude and cut her gaze in the other end of the table quickly, he apparently hadn't noticed what was going on as he interrogated Celine about how the crests were coming along and if Ashton and the dragons were still adjusting to them.

"Ah," Claude stopped short and looked past his fiancée, taking in the scene beyond them before falling back to share a glance with her. He was pretty sure he got why Dias was studying Ururun the way he was, the taller swordsman was probably planning on cornering the demon once the bill was paid and questioning him about why his brother had attacked him yesterday morning. He had no clue about Bowman, though, his expression kept flickering between dawning horror and that quivering smile he got whenever he was fighting to keep a laugh in. At least it was an interesting combination. Still, there didn't seem to be anything worth worrying about going on, so he shrugged lightly and turned back to Celine, finding the mage staring at the others thoughtfully.

Really, watching Bowman was completely mortifying sometimes, she didn't know how Nineh tolerated it as well as she did. At least Dias had an excuse for his rudeness, the pharmacist simply had no shame or self control once his curiosity and imagination were provoked past a certain point. She had a feeling that she knew where she was going to be sending at least one of the dragons when she got tired of having them underfoot, between the bond he was developing with Precis and the way Bowman was so obviously disturbed by it, Linga would be even more entertaining than it normally was. The mage rolled that idea around a bit in her head, wondering whether Graft or Nineh would be bothered by having a socially inept boarder share their respective homes with them for a bit or if she was going to have to send him off with a ridiculous sum of money and trust him not to spend it all or get himself mugged before he booked his stay at the local inn. She might just check on the fees for the university, if it wasn't too pricey then she would send him off to become a career student, she had a feeling Ururun would enjoy that tremendously. Gyoro was going to wind up locked in a closet somewhere if he didn't start behaving himself soon, but at least that would be one of the brothers taken care of.

Ururun kept his focus upon the book before him and Precis' words as she spoke and ignored the looks that Bowman and Dais were sending their way, although for very different reasons. The pharmacist had a habit of annoying him and his other with his poking and prodding and he had found that outright ignoring his presence diminished the chances of him actively engaging them. The Arlinian was another matter entirely. It had take him some time, observation and Dias' restraint during Gyoro's attack on him to fully decide him, but the blue dragon had finally come to the conclusion that his host had been right in his assessment of the other male's behavior when they had met in El. Unfortunately, he was not just a slave to his curiosity–which he had been severely reprimanded for repeatedly indulging in ways that Ashton deemed inappropriate–but also a creature of habit, it would take a bit of time and effort for him to interact with Dias as he once had. He would set about rectifying that after he and Precis had completed their current discussion and he was alone with the man, he needed to apologize and explain their recent behavior towards him and it would not be right to force the burden of that task upon their host.

Ashton was extremely distracted at the moment, what with berating Gyoro _again_ for his behavior yesterday and trying to make him understand just what was wrong with what he had done, but he had still caught enough of that sentiment to be pleased with the demon that he had handed control of his body to. His mental presence ascended just enough for Ururun to receive his approval before descending to his brother again. The red dragon was being very trying and stubborn. Not that he was surprised by that or anything. Maybe once all of this was over he should just lock Gyoro in a closet for a few years, it might work better than all of this talking they were doing.

Precis bounced a bit in her seat as she came to another diagram that would give Urie a quick understanding of what she was trying to explain to him at the moment and pushed the open book across the table at him. Her book idea had been the best thing ever, he was getting everything so quickly now that she'd be able to sneak out with him and show him exactly how Bobot operated in a few days if this kept up. She might ask Ashton if she could drag him home with her, Urie would make a great mechanic so long as he had all of his host's dexterity and none of his luck when all of this was over. Graft would think she was bringing a guy home or something, but he'd get over it once he saw how Urie was basically asexual or whatever. Unless that changed afterwards too, but her dad would still get over it once he yelled about it enough and it wasn't like they were going to date or anything, he was still going to be a dragon, just in Ashton's body. And kind of humany or whatever, but he'd still be Urie either way. Maybe they should have gotten one of those baby name books too, they still hadn't come up with anything for Gyoro yet and it was almost starting to bug her a little.

Dias was well aware of what Ururun was doing. He was also aware of Rena's concern, but her fears were misplaced in this instance as he doubted that the confrontation he was planning with the demon currently possessing Ashton would become heated to any degree. He was going to be armed this time, for one thing. The dragons' host had done a remarkable job of avoiding being alone in his presence for the past day and a half, but he didn't think that was intentional on the Elurian's part despite how uncomfortable he'd been around him since the attack; the two older women of their group refused to leave him unattended unless he was sparring with Claude and even then he was promptly returned to their care afterwards due to their ongoing machinations. He supposed that it was better this way, confronting Ashton about this would have been very time consuming, not due to him being evasive, but due to all the stuttering the other man would have done. Unless Dias had gotten him drunk first, but he wasn't about to lower himself to using such a tactic and the other man's self-appointed guardians would have his head if he attempted it, Opera could attest to that fact. Their waiter had come bearing their bill finally and Dias motioned for it, preempting Rena and her betrothed as he did so. The dragon's inquisitive nature had betrayed him again it seemed, and the swordsman held the glowing eyes as they settled in his direction to see what was occurring.

Ururun nodded shortly at the blue-haired male after holding his gaze for a brief moment and turned back to Precis, glad that she was so involved in her explanations that she had taken no notice of his brief lack of attention. He feared that he might need to request a bit of clarification from her later as she was very excited now and speaking far too quickly for him to fully digest all the information she was providing. Still, he might be able to clarify it on his own later as Ashton had agreed to hold his books for him for as long as he was able while Celine placed the crests upon him. The dragon supposed he would need to be sure that he did not become overly engrossed in his reading material to prevent his host from being overloaded from pain again. He was fairly certain that he could now do that, the sensations had become so familiar it was much easier to accept them as they came rather than sending them back to their source as was their instinct.

Bowman caught the look that passed between Dias and the dragon and leaned back in his chair. He was going to follow them as discreetly as he could and find somewhere to hide during their little talk. This was going to be good, Bowman could feel it. He hadn't been able to find any enlightenment on what had prompted Anchors to call on his best buddy yesterday–all he had gotten were smiles and shakes of the head from Claude and Dias–and he would be damned if he missed out on this one. There was a reason he was the reigning counselor and gossip collector of Linga–and their little group as well, let's be honest here–and if he didn't start tuning himself back in to what was going on again his title might wind up tarnished. Just a little. Either way he needed to break out a bit of the old Jean polish, he didn't want to get rusty or anything.

Celine had seen the way her ex-fiancé had relaxed himself and the look that had passed between Dias and Ururun right before it. She was going to drag him back to the inn kicking and screaming if she had to, and she'd enlist Rena and Claude as well if the need arose. He was absolutely pathetic, she supposed that he had been kidnapped from Mars as a babe, that was the only way she could explain that incessant nosiness of his. She turned her attention back to her inquisitor and nodded her head shortly in the pharmacist's direction, making a face that he and the healer knew well enough to decipher without any difficulty.

_Oh, man_. Now they'd have to supervise _Bowman_, apparently. All the attention that Ashton'd been receiving lately must be making the older man feel less special or something. Claude had no idea what had prompted that expression but he knew well enough what it meant, Celine only got _that _look on her face when her ex was getting ready to do something that he most definitely shouldn't be getting ready to do. He was probably going to corner Ururun after dinner and give him _'the talk'_ or warn him away from Precis or some other thing he really shouldn't be doing and had no reason for in the first place. Claude almost wanted to pull the man aside and explain to him that the dragons already knew quite a bit about human reproduction, but he was pretty sure Ashton would die on the spot if he ever heard about it, so he discarded that notion as quickly as it came to him.

Rena had almost been too busy giving the back of Dias' head a disapproving look to notice what had passed between him and the dragon, but she had managed to catch the way the pharmacist had reacted to it very clearly. She cleared her throat and gave him a hard stare when he turned his head to look at her, his eyes going wide as he realized that he had been caught. Celine and Claude must have noticed it as well, Bowman was looking between the three of them like he was trying to determine which one of them would give him the quickest, least painful death. Hopefully he was smart enough not to pick the Nedian; she'd pummel him unconscious, heal him, wait for him to wake and repeat the process until she wore herself out. She didn't know what had gotten into him lately, maybe it the stress that he was under and jitters over officially being a father in four and a half months, she loved the man dearly and would like to go at least a week without being miffed by his behavior again.

Precis found her attention being pulled from Urie as an arm descended beside her and collected the remains of her meal and quickly looked around the table to make sure they were leaving. Her student must have already realized what was going on, by the time she turned back to him he was distractedly handing his plate back to the waiter and gathering the books between them as neatly as he could. The small inventor reached down to her side and grabbed the bag they had been in previously and quickly threw the books that he hadn't collected yet inside it before standing to bring it over to his side. Urie smiled up at her briefly and politely took it from her, filling it with the books before him at a much more sedate pace. She was pretty sure that he wasn't going to be giving it back to her, it was heavy and he seemed to be insistent on doing what his host would do in most situations as far as etiquette was concerned. They were definitely going to work on that, even if he was super nice about it and didn't blush and stutter like Ashton did she still wasn't used to being treated that way so making him act more casual was going to be her next big project once he had the talking thing down pat.

Ururun would not, in fact, be giving Precis back the shopping bag she had just handed to him. Even disregarding how discourteous it would be to make her carry them for him now that they were officially his possessions he was slightly surprised by the heft it now possessed. The dragon almost wondered to himself how she could have stood to carry it for so long before remembering how heavy and unwieldy her mechanical punching arm and backpack appeared to be. He supposed that the petite female was much, much stronger than she looked. He really shouldn't have allowed himself to become lost in thought like that, now she was holding his free hand and dragging him along behind the rest of the group as they exited the restaurant. Speeding his step a bit, he quickly adjusted his pace and fell in beside her behind the others, not bothering to remove his hand from her grasp as he didn't mind the contact and she was the one to initiate it, so it would be rude for him to end it abruptly. Ururun watched as Dias broke off from the rest of the group, apparently deciding that they should hold their discussion outside. Blinking, he wondered how to separate himself from her without sounding dismissive or curt in some manner before settling on an option that he supposed would be believable coming from him given his personality and the current climate. "I think I'll stay here and watch the stars come out."

"_Seriously?"_ Precis stopped short, jerking with him as her sudden halt caught him mid-stride. Huh. Was she still holding his hand? She looked down and swung the appendage in question, watching his do the same as she did so. Guess so. She let go of it to bury hers in the pocket of the jacket she wore along with it's twin and scrunched up her face as she remembered that she was talking to the ice dragon, so it made sense. The inventor might have joined him if just to ramble at him more if it wasn't winter and they weren't in a _port town_ of all places. "Okay. Do you want me to take your books inside or anything?" He'd probably say no, but she still felt like she should make the offer, at least. Kindness for kindness and all that jazz.

"Thank you for asking, but I'll be fine. You should go inside, though, I'd feel badly if I caused you to become uncomfortable." Ururun wouldn't mind taking off his host's sweater, but that would break with social custom and the sudden drop in temperature would alert and disturb both Ashton and his disconnected other.

It was _way_ too late for that; Precis was uncomfortable already even without the cold temperature of the air around them. Why couldn't the sea be freshwater? It'd be okay then. At least she wouldn't have to worry about all that _salt_. "Oh, don't worry about _that_. We're by the ocean, I'm always uncomfortable here. Remember to tell Ashton to ask me anything you don't get, okay?"

"I will." The demon nodded Ashton's head and watched her follow the others to the inn until he could no longer see any of them. Ururun turned at that and made his way in the direction that Dias had gone, finding himself suddenly unsure how to approach the matter that he wanted to discuss with the man. He needed to be careful with these thoughts and feelings, Ashton might notice if he focused or felt them too strongly and would most likely become agitated or even worried. The demon rather enjoyed being 'the good twin,' it allowed him to bask in his host's favor and gave him far more leeway than his other and he would prefer not to bother Ashton and keep it that way. He was rather thankful for Dias' imposing height and long spill of hair, it made him easy to spot even in the dark corner he had apparently chosen for this encounter. Coming to a halt a few feet before him, the dragon blinked as he took in the way that the man was casually resting his hand upon the hilt of his sword. Supposing that the caution was well deserved after Gyoro's performance, he sat the shopping bag he carried on the ground, removed his hosts own weapons and placed them in the bag before scooting it away from him with his foot and looking back to the tall man. "I must admit that as I have never spoken to you directly, I am not quite certain how to approach this."

Dias removed his hand from where it had been and let it fall by his side; he could still draw it in an instant, but if the dragon was going to make such a concession then he would as well. Ururun must either be nervous or uncomfortable in some other manner, he had fallen out the casual tone he had been striving to adopt all evening. The swordsman didn't care much either way, the demon was speaking to the wrong person if he was looking to be reassured, that was the duty of his host and–much to his chagrin–Rena. "Just explain why Gyoro attacked me and the two of you have been acting so strangely around me since Mars." He had a mission right now, maybe once all this was sorted out and he understood the demons' behavior towards him he would indulge in a bit of small talk, but not tonight most likely. Ashton was probably aware to some degree of what was going on and was stressed enough as is, Dias didn't feel any need to add to that unless he had no choice.

Ururun was deaf to his other's mental presence due to his current state, but he could feel a faint echo of him slightly through his host. He prodded at the mental connection that he shared with Ashton minutely to determine how aware of the situation they were at the moment and grew pleased when his others seemed very involved with one another, far too distracted to notice all but the most overwhelming of stimuli. "We were under the impression that you sought to harm him. After the events of yesterday, my opinion on the matter has changed, but I cannot say so of my other. Ashton has severed our connection and I cannot communicate with him to ascertain his current thoughts and emotions."

How the _hell_ had they gotten that ide–Oh. _Of course._ Knowing Ashton, he had taken it the wrong way too at first, which had probably helped solidify the dragons' perceptions. Dias knew he had phrased it poorly, but that had been one of his intentions, to startle the Elurian a bit, maybe even shake him up a little. He had already sparred many times with Claude at that point and by his observations, challenging Ashton would have been a very different experience, so he had wanted to gauge the other man's reaction to the idea. "You're talking about when we saved the girl from those bandits in El."

"We are protective of him and you proclaimed yourself a possible enemy of his. When he did not respond well to your words we drew our own conclusions and held to them even when he later realized them and protested." Ururun frowned, not at Dias, but the apparent turmoil that Ashton was throwing Gyoro into at the moment. He hoped that his other would realize their error soon and relent, otherwise he may be punished for even longer than their host seemed to be intending. He would have to ask Ashton to show his memory of this conversation to Gyoro after he shared it with him later. "After observing the way you still behave towards him and the willingness you have displayed to help him I became uncertain, but Gyoro stood fast by his opinions and grew increasingly disturbed and angry towards you. He thought that you were waiting to catch us unaware so that you would be able to attack and possibly kill him with little struggle on our part."

Bowman was right, the dragons were insane. It mostly seemed to be from the isolation they had spent the vast majority of their lives in, the way their minds were linked and their overprotectiveness of their host, so maybe they would begin understanding everything once they were separated and in human forms. At least the ice-aligned demon understood now. Between him and Ashton his brother might just manage to not get all three of them killed once this was over.

"I feel that I must apologize to you for our behavior and actions towards you this past week, it is clear now that you deserved none of it. I am sorry for the manner in which I have treated you and that I was not able to stop Gyoro. Hopefully you will not hold our actions against Ashton." Ururun tilted both his own and his host's head down and slightly to the side as he scratched the back of Ashton's head. It was the body language that his host most often displayed when apologizing for something that he was intensely regretful for and would hopefully help make his sincerity clear to the man before him. Unlike his other, the demon was still unable to infuse Ashton's voice with any real degree of emotion.

Dias nodded his acceptance of the apology, almost wanting to shake his head at the dragon for thinking he would hold their host responsible for them in such a way. "I won't." He walked past his friend's body and looked around the town for a moment, pleased to have this resolved. The sound of cloth shifting behind him made him look back to find the dragon looking up at the stars through Ashton and itself, a small smile on their faces. At least the demon seemed to content with the situation as well. "I'm going back to the inn. Do you need me to wait for you?" Rena might badger him a bit if he left the demon unsupervised but he didn't think there was any cause for worry, Ururun had enough sense to keep himself out of trouble. Most of the time.

Ururun shook his draconic head at him, refusing to move his host's gaze for the moment. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't think it will be necessary. I believe I will wait here until my others are done conversing and then give Ashton control over his body."

Dias hoped that didn't take too long; depending on his mood when he reached the inn he might just stand outside and wait for the other swordsman to approach before entering. He nodded again and turned to make his way to his destination, the dragon and his host staring serenely up at the stars behind him.

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Author's Note: Yeah, I really felt the need to kill the whole dirty dragons subplot, so there you go. Hopefully someone out there found it as funny as I did. Updates on this might be coming at a slower pace for awhile, my classes are intensifying their workload and I started volunteering at a place for underprivileged children for course credits two weeks ago. Even so, I'm expecting to have this done by the end of April or mid-May by the latest. I might go back and do some serious editing on the first few chapters as between this and my creative writing class I've become much more descriptive and I'd like for there not to be such a sudden shift in writing styles. I also feel the need to put more hints of an Ashton/Celine relationship in there, the romance came way out of left field for me and I don't care much for the suddenness of it.


	8. Chapter 7

Summary: Claude and Ashton have 'the talk' while on the ship to El. The gang reaches the port town of Tenue on the El continent and makes their way to the temple and begin to prepare for the ritual.

Author's Note: When I said that I had written out a good deal of this chapter already I wasn't lying. Yay for early updates! Also, if you have concerns about Bowman's representation in this fic you might want to check out the note at the end of the chapter.

Warnings: There's discussion of bodily harm, references to mental and physical effects of severe blood loss and someone displays a disturbing coping mechanism that isn't very fun to watch.

Disclaimer: Eighth verse, same as the first.

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Claude had been hoping that sharing hotel rooms with Celine for an entire week would have knocked some sense into Ashton, but he supposed his friend was a bit too hard headed, had too little self esteem and too many issues with acceptance to even acknowledge what exactly was going on. Which he now realized that he should have known from the second this whole revelation came about. He was pretty sure that he got the whole crush on Precis thing now as well, they tend to be one sided and shallow. Crushes are safe, especially when you know that the object of said infatuation has absolutely no interest in you beyond friendship. Love's not like that at all, and he's speaking from personal experience on that one.

So now he's walking up the stairs to the deck of the ship to look for Ashton, who had left the room he was sharing with Celine once her and Rena were done putting in the crests in for the night and now hadn't been back for almost two hours. He almost went to check on the port side because he remembered there being some barrels over there, but he caught a human shape with two distinctive growths on its back standing quietly on the ship's bow. There's no one around at this time of night, not even the deckhands, so he thought to himself that the heraldic swordsman was most likely looking for some privacy at the moment. Claude wasn't in the frame of mind to provide any of that, though, he'd been holding off on this little _'talk' _long enough. Ambling over to the other man's side, he copied his posture and leaned on the railing, his gaze lingering on the darkened sea before them for a minute before he looked over to him. "Can't sleep?" It's either that or his friend was punishing Gyoro again or maybe trying to catch a cold, he's not wearing his new robe or the rest of his travel gear, the only thing he's wearing out of deference to the temperature is a sweater and the pants he's got on are far from being thick enough to count.

Ashton couldn't look over at Claude the way he normally would, Gyoro had forcibly hid himself inside the loose sweater he was wearing seconds after he walked on deck and the demon's neck is so large that it hinders his ability to move his head in the right direction. Ururun's enjoying it though, the blue dragon's stretched himself out as best he can to catch the cold wind as it blows and the ship sails forth. "Just thinking." He's been fighting back tears and writing letters for all of them to read if he dies during the ritual while his roommate is asleep or whenever he was alone anymore. It was easier for him that way, written words don't stutter and he can actually put some thought in to it and he knew exactly what he was writing to them. The brunet has found himself stuck on Celine's though. He can't quite figure out what to write, everything seems to come out wrong or just doesn't feel right and he can't quite place why that is. Every time he reads what he's wrote to her it feels like he's lying to both of them and he can't bring himself to do that.

_Well, that's vague._ "About what?" Claude's had a feeling that he was going to have to start slowly with Ashton tonight, his friend just had that type of vibe to him. He wondered absently how to get the other man below deck so that the two of them didn't freeze to death out here.

_Celine._ Why he couldn't seem to write to her the way he had everyone else already. Why the dragons were so quiet when he thought about her anymore. "The ritual. And....And just everybody. All of you." He knew at the very least he was being _very obtuse_ with that statement. He didn't know why, but he just couldn't bring himself to outright say it was the crest mage that he was thinking about. It was a good thing the dragons were incapable of speaking their language unless they were possessing him, they would probably tell on him just like they did each other.

"Deep thoughts, then." He was going to have to work both himself and Ashton up to sentences that contained at least five words if they're going to talk about what he wants to talk about. The blond was starting to think that the brunet beside him was trying to get himself depressed just like he used to about the dragons before he really accepted them. He can't say _'It'll be okay,'_ or something like that, it would just make this whole situation worse than it already is. "I'd be thinking about it too. I already _am,_ really. I think everyone is. It seems like everyone just..._I don't know_, started realizing what was happening once we boarded, I guess." He knew it had hit him hard when he walked up the gangplank and looked over at his best friend and realized that they still hadn't told him about the wedding because they were always waiting for the _'right time_' and that he hadn't asked Ashton to be his best man yet due to that. Claude decided right there that if he made it through this it was going to be the first thing he asked him, the wedding wouldn't be complete without him there standing next to him playing opposite of Celine and getting to hear him stutter out whatever speech he managed to come up with.

"I should have visited you all," he confessed. He wanted to shake his head at himself or something but with Gyoro curled around him like he is there's not much he can do, he's already biting the inside of his cheek again to keep himself from crying and doing his best not to send any of that to the demon and his brother. "Maybe if I had done that it would be easier. Or maybe worse, I don't know anymore."

"Me either." Claude wasn't angry in any way at Ashton for the disappearing act he pulled, in fact, he had expected it somehow. It had always been pretty obvious that he had never really had friends before they had met, which was something he had never understood at all, even with the bad luck and his infatuation with barrels. Claude had somehow figured that his inexperience in that area would lead him to wander off sooner or later until he got tired of being alone again. "But at least you're here now, that's something." He needed to find a way to turn this conversation over to Celine, the way this was going_ he _was going to get depressed. Well, more depressed if he was going to be truthful about it.

Ashton wanted to say that it wasn't enough, but he knew that saying that would just lead to them going in circles and he'd rather Claude didn't have that as one of his last memories of him. He really wished the demon around the side of his neck would move as he to nodded and made an affirmative noise in his throat since he couldn't come up with another response at the moment.

Claude held on to the frigid metal bar before him and leaned back, stretching out slowly as he tried to think of how to approach this. He pulled himself to his original standing position after a minute, empty handed, and decided to just go for it. "Lemme ask you something."

_I knew it._ "What?" Claude's going to ask him about Celine now and he's not going to have any idea how to respond at all, he's not sure what this is himself.

Yeah, Ashton must be psychic or something. "What do you think of Celine?" He's going to start of broad and whittle it all down. Ashton might get pissed off at him if he doesn't pull this off right, but that's okay if he can get him to realize this. It would have to be some kind of record if he went and died on them at twenty-three without even being kissed once.

And there it is. He'd never really listed anything like this before in regards to any of his friends, he hoped that Claude wasn't looking for a run down of the mage's attributes and personality traits. "She's.... She's an amazing friend, just like you and Rena.... I-I've put her and two of you and everyone else through a lot this past week and I _hate_ it."_ That was a safe answer, right?_

_Oh, c'mon Ashton, work with me here._ "Okay, how do you_ feel_ about her, then?" Claude made sure not to look at him as he spoke, he figured that if he looked at the other man too much it would raise those defenses of his even faster than normal. He was pretending to study the stars instead.

_Why'd he have to ask that? _"I don't know anymore."

"Yeah?" _Hey,_ maybe he can get somewhere with this. "When was the last time you knew?"

He was thankful that Gyoro was under his sweater and hugging him like he was, the contact was helping him stay calm. They must be paying _some_ attention to his thoughts, because now both of them were wordlessly flooding him with_ calm _and _peace_ and their demonic versions of _affection_ and _love_ as the red dragon tightened himself around him and his brother slowly wrapped himself down around his shoulder and arm in an attempt to be subtle while he too lent support. "I don't know." And that's one of the things that's been bugging him so badly for so long now, he just can't pin down or put anything to words when it comes to her.

_That helps a bunch, thanks_. "Well….Tell me yes or no, okay?" Claude's going to play twenty questions with him now to try to ferret this out of him. He asked for it. " Do you find her attractive?" He'd say sexy or hot or something else if it wasn't Ashton, but it is Ashton, so....

He did his best to throw Claude an _'are you crazy?' _look over Gyoro's neck. "_It's Celine._" Seriously, what type of question is that?

"So that's a yes, right?" Come to poppa, little fishy. Reel reel reel....Maybe he should stop fishing so much during the summer, it seemed to be effecting his _mind_ now. He was going to have to find something else to do to keep himself entertained in Arlia. Claude wondered if he could work something out with Celine when all this was over so that they had joint custody of their special little man here.

Great, now he was blushing again. Maybe he shouldn't have come back, he was pretty sure that he could count the number of times he had blushed in the past two years on his fingers and toes. Of course, he hadn't really been around that many people, he'd been too busy exploring abandoned sacred temples and killing the few demons that were left over from the Sorcery Globe and saving kidnapped girls with Dias and things like that. "... Y-yeah, i-it is."

"Do you like being around her?" That was another softball and he knew it, but Ashton tended to shut down when questioned very intensely or too quickly for him to adjust. He had to let him warm up first before he started throwing out the good stuff.

He was waiting for when Claude decided to go in for the attack, that one was _too_ easy. "I wouldn't be her friend if I didn't." At least he could stop biting himself, between the dragons and Claude's questioning he was too distracted to start bawling.

Claude nodded to himself since he was fairly confident that Ashton couldn't see it. "Okay, you find her attractive and you like being around her. Do you think about her a lot? Even when you're not around her?" He was going to have to be a little careful after this next question, if he got too blunt or personal Ashton would not react well _at all_.

"I-I think about all of you all the time." He was being outright evasive now and he knew it, but at least he would admit it to himself.

He rolled his eyes at that one. "_Uh-huh._ Do you think about her in the same way that you think about Rena or Precis or Opera or Chisato?"

That right there is what is so confusing to him. "No. They're all completely different people." He was still being evasive and as nonspecific as he could, but the emotions and contact the Gyoro and Ururun were giving him seemed to make it easier to do. Maybe he should call this whole thing off, if they practiced this enough he could be a lawyer one day.

Claude was trying to think of things that he did and still does with Rena now as he moved into more dangerous territory. "Do you dream about her?" _That one_ should shock him out of this little performance of his and get an honest answer out of him.

Right, this had gone _way_ too far now. "_Claude_-"

"I don't want to know _how_ you dream about her,_ just if you do._" He knew from personal experience exactly how his friend was dreaming about Celine. It was getting harder and harder to hide his smile as this went on.

Maybe if he just painted his face red he could avoid all of this blushing he was doing. "....Ye...y-yes."

He needed to back of a little. Again. "Do you feel different around her? I mean, maybe like you're a different person when she's around and you like that person? Or just more yourself or something? Either one?" He liked already knowing all the answers to these questions, he really did. He wasn't going to go in to any emotional or physical responses Ashton was experiencing around her, that would be pushing it. It was best to stay as clean and noninvasive as possible right now. Claude _would_ go there if this got heated or he started tuning him out or actively denying everything to himself, prodding him like that would probably turn the conversation around in a heartbeat. It might lead to them fighting as well, but he knew that they wouldn't really try to hurt each other, the dragons most likely wouldn't get themselves involved in it and Rena was below deck, so he wasn't all that worried about it. It would still suck, though.

He was lucky for once at least, the dragons on his back could calm him almost instantly when they sent all of these emotions and hugged him like they were. He was certain that if they weren't there he would be much more uncomfortable and maybe even angry at this point. "....Yes." This was still the worst conversation ever, though.

He wasn't going to put Rena in this next lineup, it would give his friend way, _way_ too much wiggle room if he did. "Does the idea of Celine being hurt somehow scare you more than the idea of Chisato, Opera, or Precis being hurt the same way?" If he said _'no'_ then Claude would know he was lying; it had taken that night of thinking in Mars, but he remembered now how his friend had gone berserk nearly every time Celine had been badly injured in battle with them. He had done the same with Rena and probably him as well, but there had been something different about it that he hadn't been able to put down all the way before that thing in the hallway outside the mage's room.

He really, _really_ wanted to say _'no'_ to this one. It was just a horrible question in general so far as he was concerned. Now he really wanted to shake his head at his friend, placing the women of their group in separate categories like this was a terrible thing to do.

Claude could tell. "Yes or no?"

He was fairly certain that if Gyoro and Ururun hugged him any tighter his arm would pop off and he would start to suffocate. "Yes." He was so thankful that he had the two of them on his back sometimes.

Time to wrap this up and go in for the kill. "Would you do anything you could to make her happy?" Hopefully it was the kill, Claude's memory wasn't _that _good and he really didn't want the two of them fight, especially considering what else was going on and what could happen in a few days or however long it took for the man beside him to preform ritualistic, mock suicide. It better be mock suicide, he would kill him if he did it for real.

At least that one wasn't overly personal or horrible or explicit in some way. "Yes."

"Right, so," he started before taking a deep breath and ticking off each thing he mentioned on his fingers, "you're attracted to her, you like being around her, you think about her all the time, you don't think of her the same way you do any of the other girls, you dream about her, you feel different around her, the idea of her being hurt scares you more than anything and you'd do anything to make her happy." Claude wondered if he would catch what he had just done at the beginning and there towards the end. "Do feel the same way about anyone else?" He was pretty sure that Celine wouldn't want to share.

It was a good thing the blond hadn't said that last thought out loud, Ashton might have climbed over the railing and jumped in the ocean if he had heard that one. "N-n-no, I–tha.... _That's why I don't understand_ _any of this._" He swore, if the dragons hugged him any tighter he was going to pop. He loved them so much. The three of them distracting him while he had been fighting Gyoro and Ururun was probably the best day of his life now that he could look back and see all that it had led to.

Ashton was probably the only person in the world that Claude could hear that from and believe it. Mostly because it was just so.... _Ashton. _"It reminds me of something, though." He really was this naïve, at least when it came to himself. Sometimes he wondered if a part of the training he did when he was a kid and teenager was learning to be completely oblivious to certain emotions.

He was glad that the dragons were starting to loosen from around him a little, even if it did seem a bit hesitant. He ran the hand that Ururun wasn't impeding through his hair. "What's that?" It was nice to finally be able to ask his own question after all of that.

He couldn't help it, the smile was stuck on his face now. He felt like he had just made the highest score of all time in a training simulation. He wondered if he was getting ready to murder his friend with this revelation. "It's pretty much _exactly_ how I feel about Rena. Have you–"

"_You're crazy!_" Ashton was amazed he managed to get that out _and_ turn himself to look at Claude the way he just did. Between the shock and the dragons hugging and flooding him with emotions even more intensely than before, he would have thought that moving was impossible.

"–ever considered that you might be in love with her?" Yeah, like he's going to let anything stop him from getting_ that_ out. He was going to have to back off again though, he had his friend in just the right state that he would start doing his own talking eventually if Claude let up a little and stopped pushing him. If he kept going then his companion would run off or maybe even get belligerent. "....I'm just saying that maybe you should think about it. I could be wrong, _but_...."

He wished that Gyoro wasn't around him like he was, he'd really like to fully lean against the railing or sit down or lay on the deck or _something_ right now. "...I…." He did his best to shake his head considering the demon's position and stared out over the ocean again. "....Let's go inside."

"Yeah." That worked out pretty well, he accomplished two goals in less than what, ten or fifteen minutes? It could be thirty for all he knew, Claude was well aware that his time sense was terrible. He took the lead partially because Ashton was only a hair shy of being frozen solid but also because he knew a good spot below deck that was away from the wind but still noisy enough to mask their voices and would keep them far from the cabins. He took the long way there to let Ashton warm himself up both physically and mentally for all of this. Once there he slide himself down one of the corridor's walls and waited for his friend to settle himself and start talking, the red dragon was finally out from underneath his sweater so he should be able to get a little comfortable now.

Ashton hoped that Celine would be asleep when he got back to their room, he was going need to commandeer the shower for a while to heat himself back up after being outside for so long. That's the worse thing about this whole situation, that thought there was the first one that's made any sense to him ever since Claude announced his big discovery. It doesn't feel like he can put anything coherent together in his head, he kept going to say something only for it to fall apart on him while en route to his mouth. "I-if..._if I do_...."

Claude had known that this would be coming, it would have been a miracle if all of these issues of his didn't start acting up after the revelation he had just thrown at him. He was ready to shoot each one of these down, though, he's got so much ammo that Opera would be jealous if she saw his stockpile at the moment. "Yeah?" He wondered if Celine would be upset with him if he went ahead and told Ashton everything and decided that it didn't matter, he knew that she wouldn't hurt him and would forgive him eventually, and besides, Ashton wasn't the type to let stuff like this slip accidentally _or_ intentionally. He's safe enough, so all of those cats were going to go screeching out of their bags the second he feels the need to let them loose.

He was glad that he had situated himself in a corner, it meant that he could bump his head against the wall without hurting Gyoro or Ururun while he did it. "_It's Celine._" His taste in women is _absolutely horrendous _apparently, between the crush he had on Precis and whatever it is that he feels for Celine he seems to only go for people that would _never, _**_ever_** _want him like that_.

Claude would have kicked at the man across from him if he had heard that thought. "So?" He was untying one of those bags as he spoke. Claude wanted him to say it first before he brought it out.

He was surprised that his face didn't feel red at the moment, maybe he was so numb from outside that he just couldn't feel it anymore. "What would she want with me? I mean, _it's Celine_. There's just _no way_ she'd...."

_Go get'em, kitty._ "Lots of stuff, apparently." Ashton was just blinking at him like he had spoken a foreign language, though. It was about time he started breaking his brain in return for all the times he and Celine had done it to them this past week. "Why do you think she's always touching and flirting with you all the time?" He was such an emotional idiot sometimes.

"Because she's teasing me. She started doing it the second she figured out that it made me embarrassed." He couldn't figure out why Claude seemed to think that this is some sort of giant sign or something.

"So, what, she's just a flirt?" That's not what he had been saying but maybe this will lead somewhere.

"N-no." It is a little odd, though. Celine's not a flirt at all, really. That's what was so confusing to him whenever he started seriously thinking about it.

"Right, she's not a flirt and she's your friend and knows how uncomfortable you get but still wants you to be embarrassed in front of everybody. _That makes sense._" _Wake up and stop blinking at me like that, Ashton._ "It can't be because she's interested in you too and is trying to get you to notice."

He had absolutely no idea how to respond to that. Maybe if he banged his head against the wall again it would jog something loose. "... W-why would she be in-interested in me?"

Claude was tempted to bump his head against the wall too, but it looked like Ashton was doing enough of that for both of them now. Maybe he should have done this sooner, he'd really like to laugh at the all of them for being so oblivious about this for so long. Mostly Ashton, at least he'd been able to figure out how he felt and that he and Rena were in love with each other on his own. Eventually. "Why are you interested in her? Why do you love her?" How could he _not _know that question was going to be thrown back at him? He's not going to have an answer for that and that's the _whole point_. Love doesn't really make sense, no matter how much scientists and psychologists dissect and theorize and study it and explain it away. Not when it comes to the actual experience of it, anyway.

Ashton tried to ignore that last question that Claude had tacked on, he wasn't sure that he was ready to admit _that_ to himself yet. He has all of these things buzzing around in his head now, all of these things that are just _Celine_ but none of it is the real _why_ of it. "_I don't know, I just am._ I don't even know when it _happened._"

Claude was going to switch tactics a little and let the really big cat loose after this. If he didn't they would be here for so long that they might just fall asleep in this little hiding spot of theirs. "Yeah, that's right. There's a lot of stuff that you could say but none of it's the right thing that just explains all of it. Is that what it feels like?" He was glad that his friend managed a nod in response to that, if he had just blinked at him again he would have went to get some tape to keep him from doing it anymore. "What would you say if I told you that I know for a _fact_ that she's in love with you too?"

He wished that Claude would stop tossing the word _'love' _around so much. He didn't know how to respond to the new knowledge he had just acquired a couple minutes ago or if he was comfortable classifying it in that way yet. "I...I don't know."

"Would you feel happy and scared?" Unless the brunet across from him had a completely different set of emotions than he did, the blond was pretty sure that he knew how the other man was feeling. He bobbed his head in response to the nod that Ashton managed after a few seconds dragged by. "Are you ready to know how I know?" Claude got another nod eventually, so he decided to let the cat all the way out. "Celine told Bowman that she was in love with you after the whole dress thing went down. He told me and Rena while she was with you getting ready to start on the crests again. Dias didn't need to be told about it, he'd already known for awhile, apparently. The only one that doesn't know is Precis because she would have just _told _you about it. That's why we've been making sure since you caved and started letting me and Rena pay again that you two always have a separate room from the rest of us no matter what the cost is." Clik had been a huge money drain thanks to that, space was at a premium in the rebuilding port town. He wouldn't mention Ururun's role in the whole thing, that would be asking for trouble.

Ashton bumped the side of his head against the wall a few more times, trying to get his mind to restart again. This was insane. All but one member of their little group had been conspiring to get him to realize what was going on for the past week without him ever putting everything together the right way. "Okay." Celine and Claude were right, he was an idiot. Now he knew why everything had gone the way it had when they had that meltdown in Cross. Some of the stuff she had said and what he had done and felt and why the dragons let him sleep like that for so long suddenly had whole new meanings. He tried to force himself to stop there, he really didn't need to be thinking about what had happened in Clik, that made it far too obvious for his tastes. She hadn't been teasing him at all when she had been trying to make him feel better and touching him and kissing him and talking to him like that, she'd been....No wonder he always felt the way he did when they were together, he'd been so stuck on the notion that it was amazing that they'd become friends the way they had and ignoring and denying everything else because it was safer that way that....Tria, he really was an idiot. He might be stuck here for the rest of the night just banging his head against the wall if Claude didn't do something soon.

Claude almost laughed at that, he would have if the situation wasn't what it was right now. Ashton better make it through this or he was going to follow him to the other side and drag him back to the land of the living. He was pretty sure that between Ashton and Celine the two would have the most polite and sheltered kids ever. His and Rena's were definitely going to need to corrupt them at least a little, Bowman's was going to do most of it, though, just by virtue of their pedigree. "You ready to go back in there and get some sleep?" It'd been really hard not mentioning the mage when he said that. He'd tease him about this after everything was over to make up for it.

He's not even sure if he'll be able to sleep at this point. After all of these confessions and declarations and revelations he was almost scared to be in the same room with Celine ever again. He wondered if he was going to be able to do anything but think and stare at her while she slept. He hoped she was already asleep, he didn't have a clue what he would do if she was awake. "Yeah." _No._

"Alright, then. Let's get out of here." Ashton would definitely be asking for trouble if he asked him to be _his_ best man, he didn't think he would be able to _not_ tell this story during _his_ speech.

\\\\\

Rena bit her lip as she looked out at Tenue in the distance as the ship prepared to dock. If this visit had been under different circumstances and a different season, she might have been able to enjoy taking in the sights before her, the buildings of the port town seemed to have very different architecture than what she'd seen in either Cross or Lacour. Unfortunately, Ashton had been right. They weren't going to be able to call a bunny for transport while they were here, it looked like the entire countryside was blanketed by snow. "How are we going to travel in this?"

Claude's been kicking solutions around in his head for this ever since he snuck up here earlier this morning to try to gauge just how far from their destination they were. El was apparently the Expellian version of Giveaway as far as winter weather was concerned. "The only thing I can think of is buying a wagon and attaching it to Bobot for him to pull us and our supplies around in. With Celine and Gyoro melting any snow that's too deep or any banks that are in the way we might be able to make it in good time." The Earthling was well aware that they didn't want to be making camp in this while they were here, the only good thing that came from weather like this was that it drove almost all the monsters into either hiding or hibernation.

"I'm pretty sure that 'car' of hers isn't going to make it in this." Bowman was not happy with that idea _at all_. He would be walking behind them the whole way as far as he was concerned, there wasn't anything on the planet that could get him near that thing again. That or he was going to be compounding something to knock himself out. He'd probably do the last one, at least that way if she killed all of them he wouldn't be aware of it when it happened. The others could tell him all about it when they met up on the other side and then he could finally strangle Precis and the dragons to his heart's content. Unless the demons wound up somewhere else. He hoped they did, Bowman didn't think he'd be able to handle watching Precis and _'Urie'_ nerd out with each other for all eternity.

A wagon was going to be expensive on its own, but at least they wouldn't need to buy horses as well if Bobot could do what he was hoping it could. "Not the car, the tank. The car would get stuck in this in a heartbeat." He was going to have to let Ashton pay for either all the supplies or the wagon, maybe even all of one and half of the other or they might be out of funds and the Elurian would have to pay their way home. At least they were docking early enough that they could get everything they needed and get out quick, it looked like even more snow was on the way if the sky was any indiction. He craned his neck about, looking for the tiny inventor among the small mob of people up on deck that were waiting to make it to dry land. "Hey, Precis! Can you come here?"

She really, really, _really_ wanted to say _'no'_ to that. Too bad for Precis that it wasn't Bowman that had called her over, it would have been very easy for her to refuse then. It hadn't been though, so she trudged over slowly and stood next to Rena and her soon to be husband, doing her best to ignore the pharmacist completely. "What?" Please tell her they weren't staying the night here, she was tired of having nightmares about Bobot rusting away in front of her.

"Do you think that Bobot's tank form would be able to travel through this snow?" Rena was trying to remember if she had ever seen her friend's invention transform in that way in such an environment. She was almost positive that by the time they had gone through the Field of Power that Precis had officially moved on to other, newer methods of mayhem creation.

"You mean his Mole mode? Think so, yeah." Precis bobbed her head confidently without really giving it too much thought. Unless there was something like three feet of snow out there she knew that Bobot could take it.

Bowman didn't like this. Why they had gotten stuck with the two people in the group given to regular bouts of temporary insanity as the leaders was beyond him. He didn't want to listen to any more of this, he was already half crazy from stress as it was. He found Dias and Ashton talking to each other over by the stern and made his way towards them. He needed a lot less estrogen and a little more predictability and sanity right now. At least Dias could balance Ashton out and calm him down if he got started on something.

"Could we hook a wagon to him and have him pull it? Does he have a weight or towing capacity?" Claude felt like he was playing twenty questions again.

_Oh, wow._ Precis had never tried to use him to haul stuff around like this before. "I can put whatever extra stuff we need on real quick with a material kit. Um....I don't really know how much he can pull, I've never tried _that._ It's got to be enough to handle a wagon with some stuff in it, though." She had built her little invention Neumann tough, he'd better be able handle it or she was going to disown him or something like her Dad always threatened to do to her.

"Okay," Rena nodded to herself and tried to sort out where everyone should go to get on the road quickly. "Precis, we're going to get you the money for a material kit but you're going to need to go with Claude and Ashton to see what the wagon looks like first. Once you're done with that you can head to the town's entrance and get him set up. I'll take Celine, Bowman and Dias and get all the supplies rounded up." Thank goodness she and Claude had quizzed Ashton about their destination already, at least she had an idea of what they needed. She looked up at her betrothed to see if he was in agreement. "Does that sound good to you?"

"Sounds like a plan."

/////

"_Precis! Stop here!_"

It took a few seconds for the inventor to fully translate those words in her head and comply, between her attention being held as it was by the impossibly steep Mount El less than a kilometer away, the thickness of her helmet, the noise that Bobot was making and the creaking of the wagon that was attached to him there was so much visual and muted audio stimulation bouncing around that she was surprised that she had been able to hear whoever it was that had called to her just now. It had most definitely been one of the guys though, so that meant that it was either Claude or Ashton, which she was fine with. Unless Bowman had woken up and they were going to have her talk to him, then she was going to put them on _the list _too. "_Gotcha!_"

Dias allowed his body to sway as they came to a sudden halt and watched their possessed Elurian guide rummage through the supply boxes, already standing and using the additional weight of the dragons on his back to balance himself in ways that would be almost impossible otherwise. The robed man pulled three lanterns, a bottle of liquid fuel and a long candle from the myriad boxes that stood before him and turned to the blond that now stood beside him and handed him one of the lanterns before making his way over to the last swordsman and handing Dias one himself, nodding at him as he did so. Dias took the proffered tool and followed the other two men out of the wagon, stepping over the legs of an unconscious Bowman and raising one hand in farewell to Celine and Rena before he climbed out.

"Where's the entrance?" Claude studied the mountain from around the side of the wagon as their friend readied the lanterns for use distractedly.

"It's there. Ururun just shut it before he left to keep monsters from hiding inside of it again." Ashton lifted the candle he held to Gyoro, the red demon exhaling a small gout of flame from his maw at the unspoken command. "You see how there isn't any snow over to the East?" He lit the lantern and motioned to Dias to trade with him, blowing out the flame on the candle as he did so. _'Waste not, want not'_ and all that.

Dias had been wondering as to the cause of that. He had a few theories at this point, but he would rather hear confirmation on his most likely suspect first. "Underground hot spring?"

The brunet nodded at him even as his blond friend turned his somewhat disbelieving gaze on the two of them. "Seriously?"

"Its man-made, I think," Ashton explained as Gyoro preformed his duties again. "Well, no, I know it is, there's no way it's natural. There's activated crests everywhere under the water. I guess they bored into a reservoir to pull it up to the surface. I'm pretty sure that they use it to heat and supply water to the temple, going by how many pipes are floating around in it."

Well, at least Ashton had moved on to new methods of leaving him completely stupefied after their little talk last night. "You're kidding me. You mean this thing has plumbing _and_ central heating?" It looked like Claude needed to have another little chat with his best friend though, he seemed to have gotten past the shock of last night and gone straight to avoiding Celine as best he could. He was probably going to enlist the help of Bowman and Dias and lock him in the same room with the mage if he was still at it tomorrow, there was no way that he was going to let his friend put her and the rest of them through dying or almost dying without confessing to her personally just how he felt about her. Love was apparently one of those emotions that the demon dragons could describe but just didn't get, at least in the romantic sense, and even if Ururun had been able to come out and say it, Celine still deserved to hear it from him before everything went down.

Unlike Claude, Dias wasn't the least bit surprised by this revelation, he had concluded during his last trip to the continent a year ago that Elurians were simply not a breed of people that let the ruins found within their borders go to waste and that the country's heraldry and technology had been much more advanced than what it had let on to the outside world. Between that, its strict immigration laws and its once rumored historical reputation as the 'land of demons,' it explained what they had seen in Eluria Tower and the secrecy and odd traditions of the country before its downfall. Such as the heraldic swordsman's skills. In all likelihood the arts that their companion practiced would be dead within at most a few generations unless the people began clinging to the old ways again once the rebuilding was over. "What type of terrain can we expect?" He shouldn't be thinking of death and Ashton at the same time given the current circumstances.

Ashton started toward the base of Mount El, handing Claude his now lit lantern and working on his own as he went. "It should be fine. The route we're going to take was a supply line by the looks of it. Bowman and the girls'll be safe so long as we keep the way lit for them. It's basically a giant corkscrew bored into the inside of the mountain." He led the two other men to the eastern face as Precis started Bobot and followed behind them at a sedate pace until he stopped before the craggy surface and studied it. "Okay." He pulled one of his gloves off and activated his crests before flattening his palm to the surface of a particularly flat plane of rock, a large section of the mountain face before him shuddering as it retreated from him and lifted to reveal the interior chambers of the mountain. "Everybody might want to take off all their extra clothes, it's going to be pretty hot and humid until we reach the temple."

\\\\\

Bowman pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes and wiped at his sweaty face a few times as he tried to fully rouse himself from the near coma the sleeping compound he'd taken had put him in. The voices of the others were echoing lazily to him from somewhere outside the wagon, so apparently Precis had managed not to kill all of them again. He yawned and stretched as he forced himself to a standing position and looked around, taking in the way the supplies had been moved about and the pants, sweaters and coats that littered one of the farthest corners. If they had decided to throw a farewell orgy for Anchors and decided not to wake him up for it, then....Right, apparently he needed to stop thinking until this stuff wore off all the way. He forced himself to climb out of the wagon, shaking his head at himself as he went. Now that he was out of the deathtrap that they had bought for this trip the voices of his companions were much clearer, it sounded as though Ashton was explaining something about parts of the temple being triggered by the presence of heraldry nearby or something of a similar nature. Either way, he was going to ignore the conversation until it shifted to something that made sense and study the mosaics that completely covered the walls of the area that he now found himself in instead. Whoever had built this place had apparently never heard of a little concept known as '_having a life'_ before.

Celine noticed the groggy pharmacist from the corner of her eye and motioned subtly to Rena to avoid disturbing Precis' ongoing interrogation of Ashton. She shifted where she stood as the Nedian went to heal the man and smiled lightly when the movement drew a glance from the heraldic swordsman, feeling rather pleased when he held her eyes for a few seconds despite his distracted state before shifting his gaze back to the inventor and responding to the newest question she had put forth. He had been behaving rather tense and withdrawn around her since she had woken him this morning, though she had to admit that she was acting in a very similar manner. The mage supposed that they both had good reason for the current awkwardness between them, his crest markings were nearly completed and would only require one or two more sessions. Unfortunately, they were in areas that were going to be very uncomfortable for both of them, they had decided to do the sides of his hips and the upper most parts of his thighs last due to the discomfort it would cause. At least the dragons had finally acclimated to the pain of the procedure and had ceased sending it back at him, he would be conscious and lucid and able to cover and position himself without the help of the other men, which would hopefully lessen their mutual discomfort. She had come to despise the crest patterns that she was inking into his skin, it hadn't taken long for her to realize that as beautiful and elegant as they were that they acted as targets, that the largest formations drew the eyes to his most vital organs and arteries. Celine was relieved that after this was done they would be transferred to the golem bodies that Gyoro and Ururun would be inhabiting, she didn't think she'd be able to stand the sight of them on him much longer.

Rena approached Bowman and began cleansing his body of the excess chemicals and their effects, trying to keep her attention focused on the conversation behind her that finally appeared to be winding down. The more that she was able to distract herself the less she would be able to focus on the purpose of their journey to this place. She wanted to be angry at the dragons and their host, but she couldn't manage it for more than a few moments at a time and even then she couldn't act on it. Ashton wasn't doing a very good job at hiding his fear, discomfort and regret from the rest of them, and as for the dragons, they seemed to have very good reasons for putting everyone through this if Ururun could be believed. The healer finished her work and dragged the pharmacist back to the rest of the group, Precis appeared to have exhausted her supply of questions judging by the way she was tapping her foot and staring up towards the ceiling.

"Um, o-okay. So," Ashton began hesitantly after Precis announced that she had finally ran herself dry and Rena and Bowman rejoined the group, "I-I guess it's time for the tour." He lead them through the temple, showing them the library, kitchen, bedrooms and miscellaneous other areas, explaining as he went that it had apparently been well maintained before the Sorcery Globe fell. He tried to distance himself from the situation to some degree, lighting the oil lamps and opening the heating vents in the floors and walls as he went. None of the rambling he was doing seemed to be calming him, and the busy work that Ururun had left for him due to his methodical nature failed to provide any true distraction. Entering the communal bathing area, he activated the crests engraved along the edges of the large recessed tub and stood silently, watching the water enter from the hot spring below to fill it. He supposed that it was more of a small pool than anything, it could easily hold at least six people and was three and a half feet deep once it dropped off fully from the sitting bench that encircled the interior. Rena grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, pulling him from his thoughts. The brunet nodded tightly and swallowed nervously before leading them to the ceremonial supply room and stepping aside to allow them to enter and examine what was to be found there. He had finally run out of places to go, the only place left after this was the ceremony room and he was dreading stepping inside it and actually explaining everything and showing them what needed to be done there.

Bowman stepped forth ahead of the others and examined the large blocks of clay that stood to the side of the door, wrapped in clear, protective sheaths to prevent moisture from escaping. He pressed his thumb in to one of the blocks and took his hand away, thankful for the exceptional condition of the substance. The way he figured it, the higher the water content of the clay mixture, the less blood would be needed to create the demons' new bodies. The pharmacist turned and took in the rest of the room's contents, examining the dried herbs that hung from the wall waiting to be prepared, the various vials of liquids that stood in wait and all the other mystical implements strung around the room. He hoped that the book that contained the ritual not only identified, but described the herbs that would be needed, there were several present that he wasn't familiar with at all or knew to be exclusive to the El continent and had only read about while completing his studies. "Do we know if we have enough clay and herbs to pull this off? How much do we need?"

Celine didn't bother to turn from her examination of the shelf before her as she answered. "Each golem requires roughly whatever amount of the mixture is needed to match the weight of the host. We have enough from what I can tell and between the dry stock on the walls and the prepared herbs here, there should be more than what we need." She certainly hoped her estimates were correct. If she was off and they needed more than what was provided here the mage wasn't sure what they would do, she was a bit skeptical as to whether much of what she saw was in season or even commonly available.

"Great. We've got to mix upwards of three hundred pounds of this stuff." The pharmacist was dimly wishing that he had brought a scale or that they would be able to find one somewhere, they were going to need to try to determine what Ashton's actual weight was sans the dragons. He was fairly certain that the man weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty-four to even seventy-three kilograms now thanks to them being on his back, his frame didn't allow for a heavily muscled build and his fighting style stressed agility, skill and magics more than anything. The demons threw Bowman for a bit of a loop, though. Given their size they should each weigh thirty kilos at least but they obviously didn't somehow despite their strength and power, most likely due to their status as possessing spirits. If they weighed even half as much as they should, their host would have greater and more frequent back problems then he already had and might even be a bit broader than he was naturally inclined to be due to his body trying to adapt to the constant stress the demons put on it. "Right, we're done here. Let's move on to the main attraction."

Ashton winced at the other man's wording as he turned to lead the way, opening the door and stepping ahead of them this time, his gaze focused on the floor of the ceremony room. Moving forward slowly as the others entered, he came to the deep grooves that ran down from the sides of the seat-like depression that was carved into the steep platform at the back of the chamber. He didn't bother explaining anything now, his throat was too tight for him to risk speaking at the moment despite the reassuring emotions the dragons were sending him. Kneeling in the center of complex maze of depressions below him, he lifted the dividers found at various intersections in the floor, trying to create the path that Ururun was showing him in his mind while working the tension out of his throat as subtly as he could. The dragon's vision faded and he stood, checking his work for himself and nodded. His blood would now travel from the platform to the closest two of the three large, concave, crested depressions that the clay for the golems would be placed in. The brunet allowed his relief and gratitude to flood over his link with the dragons, Ururun had chosen the path he had for a very obvious reason, he would need to look down purposefully at a very severe angle to see it travel and collect in the hollows that he had selected for their bodies to be formed in. His back still to the others, he worked his gloves off before he walked towards the platform and ascended the stairs, working on the fastenings of his robe as he went. "You need to see where I'm going to be, right?" At least that's what he thought that he had heard Bowman say before he dosed himself and they all headed out from Tenue, he couldn't seem to bring that memory into focus now. Even if he was misremembering the conversation, the pharmacist was going to be supervising most of his care before, during and after the ritual, and he would need to see it beforehand so he knew exactly what he was going to be dealing with. Might as well get it out of the way. He'd never wanted to run from something so much in his entire life.

Bowman immediately wanted to say _'no'_ to that, but he couldn't bring himself to. He already had a good enough idea of what was going to be required for this just from the set up of room itself the and the way the _'chair_' seemed to be carved into the stone of the platform. It was a bit difficult to tell as the chamber was poorly lit and shadows swarmed about the far side of the room across from him, but it almost looked to the pharmacist like a stone obstetrical examination chair, that was the only way he could think to describe it considering its reclining back and the placement that it had for the legs. He wasn't confident, but he also thought that it was either covered in even more crests–which wouldn't be surprising, they were carved all over the damn room–or that there were straps coming out of the stone somehow. He really should have asked to see the book that this ritual was in instead of trusting everything to the heraldic swordsman before him and the crest mage behind him, he had a feeling that Celine had left a few key details out of her explanations to spare them from balking or worrying excessively and to keep Ashton relatively calm and stable. At least there looked to be enough space on the platform behind and to the sides of the chair that they could move and treat Anchors easily enough and not see everything assuming they could be in the room when all of this was going on. Dias, Rena and he better be able to be here at least, Bowman had a _bad feeling_ about this.

She had almost thought herself capable of watching the demonstration that Ashton had decided to give until Bowman finally began moving forward and Ashton suddenly stopped fumbling with his robe and removed it before mechanically kneeling down to work on his boots. Celine turned her head away at that and stared down at the crests engraved below her, trying to collect herself enough that she could look back up at the two men to watch and perhaps join in on their consultation; if the taller brunet became too distraught during all of this she might need to step in and answer the pharmacist's questions as best she could. The mage was infinitely appreciative that she had been preparing herself for this, but she was also feeling a wee bit guilty. The others gathered around her did not seem to be taking this well, Rena in particular.

Claude was dead certain that if it weren't for Rena holding onto him like she was, the shock of Ashton doing this in front of everyone, and his own anger at himself from running from Celine's room in Mars, he would be gone and back outside the temple by now, maybe even halfway back to Tenue already. As it was, he was fighting the urge to look away with the desire to run forward and throttle Ashton for not even giving them fair warning that he was going to pull this little stunt of his. It didn't matter really, his friend was hiding his face the same way he had when the mage put his crests in the first time and that told Claude that he was just as, if not more disturbed and agitated as the rest of them by all of this.

Judging by the way that Ashton was acting at the moment, Dias knew that he was going to break soon. The other swordsman tended to surprise him and exceed his expectations, so it might not be at the moment, but he would undoubtably do so later in the privacy of his own room unless Claude and Rena forced him to bunk with Celine again. Hopefully they would realize the strain that the man was under and allow him a long period of seclusion after this. Dias didn't normally interfere with things of such a nature, but considering the circumstances he would make a _very clear_ _suggestion_ to them if they insisted on continuing on with their little conspiracy. The Elurian needed to release as much of this as he could from his system before the ceremony, otherwise he might breakdown during it and Dias wasn't certain what the consequences of that would be, if it would destabilize him to such a degree that he would be unable to carry out whatever it was that was required of him.

Precis really wished that Rena wasn't so sensitive or in-tune with her emotions all the time or whatever, she was pretty sure that if she started crying or something that Claude wouldn't be able to get her out of the room before anyone else noticed. If they were lucky she would be quiet about it and Precis could just move in front of her friend to hide her in case Ashton managed to look back up at everyone. She guessed that would be okay, she was a little shorter than her friend and even though Ashton was so high up he'd have Bowman in front of him, so maybe it would all work out. The inventor was trying to split her attention between her friend and the two men in front of everyone; she didn't really want to focus on one or the other, to be honest, but if she did that then she might not be able to focus on herself and that was probably for the best at the moment, because seriously, this was just _wrong_.

Rena tightened her grip on Claude, her eyes glued to the two brunets before them. She was almost relieved that Bowman was standing in front of Ashton the way he was, she could swear that something had just left him suddenly before the other man had come to a stand before him. Stepping in this room had been enough as it was, but the way that their friend was behaving now and had been acting as he lead them through the temple had slowly set her so far on edge that she was now just as distressed as he seemed to be. It almost felt as though she was watching Celine put his crests in again for the first time, if his pain hadn't just been emotional she knew that her hands would be glowing and itching with her powers again.

Bowman cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head as Ashton situated himself before him silently. Now that he was standing before the other man and had a close up view of everything, he _knew_ he didn't like this. _At all._ The dim lighting of the room and the crests hadn't just been hiding straps, they had been concealing even more grooves; not just the ones that traveled from the armrests–which he had expected–but also from the footrests that were now covered by the other man's feet and pants. Those wouldn't be there for just for aesthetic purposes, they were there because Anchors would most likely be cutting into the arteries in his ankles, calves or the back of his knees as well as his wrists, forearms or elbows. The pharmacist ruled out the back of the knees or the interior of the elbows after realizing that cutting there would be impractical as the arteries were larger in those areas and hadn't traveled away from the heart or branched out enough yet, there would still be too much force from the heart pumping the precious fluid through the subject's body and the blood loss from one injury to those areas alone would be far too messy for the grooves to catch everything. Even so, the loss from further down the extremities didn't please him, the presence of the straps led him to the conclusion that the people that underwent this ritual routinely lost enough blood to experience increased levels of anxiety and agitation or even worse effects of blood loss. "Please tell me that you only have to cut your arms." He knew it was a pointless thing to request, but Bowman was stuck hoping that he was wrong in his assessment. Elurians were even more insane than Precis and the dragons if they had been willing to go to these lengths just to punish possessing spirits.

"No, I have to cut my legs too." Ashton rolled up the long sleeves of his shirt before lifting one of his legs and doing the same to his pant leg and running a finger down the dual line of crests that outlined the incision point at the base of his calf. "Right here." He couldn't even feel his vocal chords anymore, he barely realized that he had spoken at all. Maybe he should let one of the dragons take over and explain it for him, but he was feeling a bit too removed to bother at the moment. Gyoro and Ururun felt as though they were very far away, it was difficult to feel or hear anything they sent to him. He thought that Gyoro had just said something, but he couldn't process it very well. Or maybe that had been Ururun. It was a little difficult to tell them apart right now.

Ururun better be taking Ashton over again, otherwise the man before him might have just snapped and dissociated himself from the situation. Bowman studied the markings that the other man had dragged his finger over and looked up to try to see his face through his hair. His eyes were still focused and their natural color, so the pharmacist supposed that while he might not have left the building, he at least had his foot out the door. He reached for one of Ashton's arms to see the markings there, but the taller brunet beat him to it, turning his forearm over and exposing the crests that mapped out the arteries to be found there as he repositioned his leg and bent forward far too casually considering the situation. "Right." The pharmacist would have preferred it if Anchors had started crying or bolted from the room or was laughing like he had after having the salve had been put on him the first time and Gyoro had nearly killed him, he had never witnessed this reaction before and he hadn't been expecting it at all. He knew for certain that this wasn't the dragons and their link at work this time, Gyoro and Ururun were hovering down and around their host as they tried to meet his eyes themselves, so this was obviously all Ashton this time. "I can't see this being a job that you'd do yourself. Does this book of yours say anything about whether or not someone else can do this for you?" Even if the heraldic swordsman saved his forearms for last there would still be too much blood wasted in the process and he ran the risk of cutting into one of his nerves or tendons even if he followed the outline the crests created exactly. The others must have noticed Ashton's state as well, there were several different sets of footsteps approaching them from the rear as he spoke.

"I have to be holding the knife and reciting the spell before my blood reaches the clay. I can't remember it saying anything about other people being here when I did it." Maybe Celine would know, she was making her way over with the others. He didn't know why they seemed so worried all of a sudden, he was just explaining everything to Bowman. He couldn't hear the dragons or feel anything at all now, but he was apparently explaining everything well enough, the pharmacist didn't seem confused at all. Maybe he was mumbling and didn't even realize it. It would take a bit too much effort to enunciate more than he normally did or raise the volume of his voice, so if he was mumbling then Celine could just take over if she wanted to. He didn't care anymore.

Bowman looked over his right shoulder first to find Claude and Rena before looking over his left one and discovering Celine, Dias and Precis. He was almost grateful the man before him had decided to pull the neurotic coping mechanism he was displaying out of his ass, it looked like it had shocked Rena enough to keep her from crying for the moment. "Does that sound right?" Bowman was almost positive that Ashton was still there intellectually and had stopped at disconnecting himself emotionally. He wasn't a psychologist, though, so he was going to exercise a bit of caution and check with Celine before continuing.

Celine nodded her head in response, not bothering to reply verbally. The state that Ashton had gotten himself in wasn't quite the same as the one she had already seen several times before, there was still too much of the man there in his eyes for him to have sunken that far down into himself. Still, she was greatly disturbed by it and was starting to wonder if Bowman had anything on him that they could give to Ashton once this was over with to settle him a bit. She reached out to lightly lay her hand on Rena's arm once the pharmacist turned back to the man before them, trying to smile reassuringly at the younger woman and her fiancé as they looked to her in turn. She really should have warned them about this, it had been absolutely horrible of her not to do so, but she and Ashton had barely been able to broach the subject between themselves and she hadn't been able to bring herself to describe everything to them no matter how often she tried to work herself up to it.

"We're going to be in here with you, then. I'll do the incisions for you. I was able to get my hands on some anesthetics, but they're not very powerful and they won't be able to block most of the pain, but at least it's something. Where's this knife?" He was going to have be stingy with the anesthetics when he put the cannulas in, but he'd try to dose Ashton better than he did himself or Dias, considering the circumstances and the fact that he would definitely be getting at least two of them inserted now instead of one. It was a good thing he had stolen a few extras of everything he could before his bag got so full it would barely shut.

He wished that Ururun wasn't so far away right now, the dragon would know exactly where it was as he had given the entire room a thorough inspection before leaving and he remembered seeing it, just not where exactly. He had a general idea, though. "It's up here. There's a hidden compartment somewhere on my right, I'll ask Ururun where it is later when I can hear him again. I don't remember the exact location being in the book."

Bowman shook his head at him even as Claude and Dias moved to ascend the steps and began searching for the mystery knife. "Don't worry about it, we'll find it." Ashton needed to get out of here and lay down somewhere until he had come back to himself and had some alone time to cope, he apparently hadn't been able to deal with everything while being crowded by everyone over the past week and a half. Which was a stupid realization to be having all of a sudden. It should have been obvious, but they had been so busy trying not to think about this for so long and focus themselves on other, less important things that they had failed to consider whether their friend was adjusting to everything and apparently ignored whatever warning signs there had been. "You want to get down from there? It's late, I think we all need to take a break. You can rest in that room you were sleeping in last time that you showed us, just leave one of your gloves by the door so that we can find you once we finally get a meal of some sort cooked up." He was confident that Ashton was functional enough to take care of himself to that degree at least and he had a feeling that he wouldn't want to be around anyone once he came back to himself all the way. He knew he wouldn't if he was him.

Rena stepped forward to help Ashton up as best she could even with Bowman and the other men above them assisting him as they were. She nudged the pharmacist beside her sightly and gave him a questioning look once their friend was up and about and the other two men above them helped him collect the clothing he had shed. Ashton seemed far too removed and unsteady, she was wasn't sure that he should be alone right now.

Bowman nodded at her and ascended the stairs, his eyes gluing themselves to the floor as he reached the top of the platform and bent down to grab the other brunet's discarded gloves and held them until he had his boots back on and patted him on the shoulder as he passed him and slowly made his way out of the room. At least they knew for a fact now that this wasn't some sort of bizarre suicide pact that Ashton had made with the dragons. Not that there had ever been any real doubt about it, it was just a relief to have evidence that ruled it out completely. Claude or Dias had managed to find the knife's hiding place from the sound of it, and the women of the group had joined them while the pharmacist had been lost in thought, so he turned to look down at the other men and check on their discovery. "What's it look like? Is it sharp enough?" He should have brought a scalpel, he wouldn't have any doubts about its suitableness.

Dias lifted the ornate ceramic box from the recessed chamber it had rested in and sat it before him, lifting the lid and removing the short, equally ornate knife from its resting place. He wouldn't mind never seeing another crest again for the rest of his life after all of this was over, he was beginning to despise them. The blade had been well cared for, he could see that even in the shadows that surrounded him, so he nodded and held it up for the pharmacist to inspect for himself. There wasn't much to say at this point, Ashton had managed to communicate his need for solitude to the others well enough that no one was following him.

Claude shook his head as Bowman accepted the knife and immediately cut himself on it as he tested the blade with one of his fingers. He guessed that it was sharp enough. Rena was healing him already, so at least it provided some distraction. "I think we need to see the book now." They should probably get out of here and go somewhere else to talk about this, but they needed to give Ashton enough time to escape, so they could stay here for a few minutes if the room didn't run them out of it first.

"Ashton has it in with the rest of his things, I'll get it after this is done and show it to you." She should have shown it to them before. There was no sense kicking herself for it now, though, there were more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. Celine was most definitely not going to be placing any crests tonight, the most she would be doing was mixing a bit of clay to get a feel for it so that she could demonstrate to the others what needed to be done.

Precis was bouncing in place again, but this time it was to keep herself from bolting out of the ceremonial chamber now that Ashton was done demonstrating and freaking out or whatever that had been. She was trying to forget it at the moment. It'd probably pop up later though, Precis had a feeling that she was going to be having nightmares about the room and the ceremony and Ashton until this whole thing was over and done with. "This place is _way_ too dark, we need to bring the lanterns in here or something." She hoped that if she had to be here she would be able to stand behind everybody, she knew that she definitely didn't want to watch. That and she was pretty sure that the dragons wouldn't spring up fully dressed or something and seeing Ashton naked wasn't on her to-do list.

Rena almost smiled at the expression on Bowman's face as he nodded and handed Dias the knife back, it looked as though the idea that he actually agreed with their resident inventor had thrown him a bit. The Nedian was trying to ignore the room that they were in and the urge to go check on their absent friend as she shifted her weight distractedly. "We might be able to find some lamps that aren't attached to the walls. I think they might get in the way if we don't place them right." Not that she wanted the room to be all that bright once they started the ritual, she had grown used to seeing her friends harmed in battle but this was going to be a wholly different experience.

"Good idea. There have to be some candles or oil lamps somewhere around here." Bowman wanted to get everyone squared away for this ahead of time and he would rather avoid being in this room unless he had to. He looked uneasily over at Claude and Dias from the corner of his eye for a moment before deciding that he would act as Ashton's substitute for the run through that he wanted to do. Dias was far too tall to act as a suitable stand-in for the missing man and he wasn't going to put Claude in the position of acting out Ashton's role in the affair, the two men were too close for that. "So," he began as he situated himself into the stone seat and reclined all the way back before looking up at the others above him and ignoring the looks they were now giving him, "we need to run through this so we know what's going on. Ashton's going to be here. I'll be in front of him when I do the incisions....I'll probably do his arms first and then his legs as fast as I can. After I give the knife to him I'm going to need someone to help pull me up, I'm probably going to go ahead and attach my IV line so that I can start pumping him back up the second we have the chance. He's going to have a saline drip in his other arm and I might hook Dias up as well if I can find a third place to insert a cannula, so...." He was glad that he had his eyes closed and was thinking out loud for all of this, it helped him realize just who would need to be the one doing the heavy lifting through all of this if everything went like he was expecting it to. He opened his eyes and looked between Rena and Claude quickly, his gaze settling on the blond who seemed to have already realized exactly what he was going to say. "I'm going to need you to do that if Dias is already hooked up, maybe Rena too."

Claude almost protested that, he wanted to be sure that he was in front of Ashton as much as he could be this time so that his friend would be aware of his presence as intensely as he could be given the circumstances. He'd figure something out, even if he just wound up rambling at him from behind he'd be sure that the brunet knew that he was there and hadn't run off again. He glanced over at his fiancée before nodding shortly, she seemed to have accepted the idea as well.

"Right. We'll be here." Rena was worried, she didn't know if she would be able to control her magics during the ritual and was hesitant about being so close to the center of it all. She was already going to be restraining herself from running forward and healing Ashton again, if she had to be near him she was afraid that instinct would take over and Bowman would have to cut him again.

"Once that's taken care of this should be over fairly quickly. It would have been bad enough if he was just losing blood from two places, but he's hitting his legs for this, too. I can see why it's required, though, too many dead cells might retard the process or something." The reasoning for it had to be similar to that at least, otherwise the layout of the room wouldn't make sense and there would be such a high mortality rate that he couldn't understand why whoever had transcribed the damned thing had even bothered. "The clay's in excellent condition, the moisture content of it will help us out and hopefully we'll be adding some of those liquids in there to it to help with that and keep his blood loss to a minimum." Now it was Celine's turn to share with the rest of the group. "Are we?"

"If I remember correctly, water from the spring below and a few of the oils that are stocked in the storage room are ingredients, so yes." Celine had to admit that a similar thought had occurred to her when she had first read through the ritual, but she wasn't certain if it comprised enough of the mixture to do as the pharmacist seemed to be hoping.

_Oh, thank Tria for small favors._ "Good. Okay. Now, with the way he's going to be laying here it wouldn't be too difficult to work on him like this, but I'd rather get him flat on his back once Rena has healed his cuts; he should have his feet elevated slightly and it will give us more room to work in. We're going to need someone to hold the saline drip through all of this and help me out if I need it. Celine should probably be in front of him, we need someone to tell us what's going on with him and the clay. She can check the ritual and remind him of what he needs to say if he forgets anything and try to keep him calm and here through all of it, so that's going to be your job, Precis." Bowman had wanted to hand the duty off to Dias, but he had a feeling that he might wind up draining the two of them past the point that they could reliably handle anything; they might wind up too dizzy to stand on their own for a while afterwards. He should have brought more of that saline solution; it wasn't a replacement, but at least it would artificially inflate Ashton's blood volume and get him rehydrated at the same time.

"Yeah, I got it." It was a little weird for Bowman to be handing her a responsibility like he just had, but Precis guessed that he had his reasons for it. At least if she wasn't going to be out in front like Celine apparently was, she didn't think she could handle watching everything, she had barely been able to watch Ashton. The mage had a stony, distant look on her face, so the inventor supposed she had already been preparing herself for it.

Maybe he _should_ have made Claude act as the stand-in, he was fairly certain that he and Dias would be the ones that needed to lift Ashton up out of his seat and to the floor as any other way risked pulling at the cannulas, catheters or IVs he was going to set up. They'd figure it out later. He might go ahead and tear up some bedclothes or some other fabric and stitch them in the sides of their shirts, he was going to have to do a bit of experimenting later. "Let's practice getting him out of this thing. If I wind up connecting the three of us like I think I will, it'll probably be me and Dias that actually do the moving. I don't want anything popping out and too many bodies between us just increase the chances of that happening." He looked up at the blond again, this time to make sure that he knew that he had been included with that.

Claude hadn't needed Bowman to check on him, he had already gotten where that had been leading. He mimicked Dias, kneeing down on the other side of the pharmacist and grabbing him under his arms before looking down at him.

Bowman did his best to go completely limp before he nodded at them, Ashton was probably going to be dead weight when they did this and at least the two other men would have some idea as to what to expect. He would ask their opinion on how they needed to position themselves later once they had settled down and worked through everything.

Dias looked up at Claude from overtop the pharmacist's head as he went still again, looking for the blond to give him a sign that he was ready. He received his cue when the younger man looked up at him briefly and bobbed his head tensely, and the two of them lifted and pulled Bowman from his current position and dragged him back until he was away from the ledge and laid him down as gently as they could. He didn't bother standing up yet, if Bowman hadn't been satisfied with that they might need to repeat the process a few times and they might as well stay where they were to help him back up.

Bowman blinked at the ceiling overhead, thinking and coming to the conclusion that they wouldn't need to drag him around like a rag doll again. "Alright, that'll work." Now that the demonstration was over they needed to cover the more dirty aspects of the predicament they were in. He didn't bother moving from the floor yet as he could see everyone fine from this vantage point and was enjoying being out of the chair a bit too much to want to start moving again. Except for his hands, he was gesticulating as he spoke now that they could all see it since his back wasn't to them this time. "So, I'm going to be honest here. There's not much good in this whole situation from what I can see. We're here, we've got the necessary equipment and blood donors and Rena's magics, and that's pretty much it from what I can tell. I don't know how this whole thing works, I'm going to admit to that right now, but the straps on that thing don't indicate anything good." Bowman didn't want to go into full detail about all of this, but he had to. Everyone needed to have some clue as to what to expect. "Ashton's going to be losing blood so rapidly that if this lasts for more than five minutes he might be too far gone unless we go ahead and start patching him back up. I'm not sure what he'll do thanks to all of it, but there are a few big problems we need to keep an eye out for. One of them is agitation, he'll be weak but he might not be himself after a few minutes. If he drains too fast to start going through personality changes then we've got few other things to worry about; he could faint, or start seizing on us, or even have a heart attack or a stroke. If any of those things happen then we need to be quick and make a decision, he won't be able to respond at all at that point and if it keeps going he'll start experiencing organ death all over the place." He would say that Rena's magics would solve all of that, but even if she was casting constantly it might not be able to do anything but retard the process until Ashton had his blood supply pumped up to a level that his body could sustain itself again. It was still worth a shot, though. "Rena, the second we start moving on this you're going to need to let loose and not stop until you run out of energy or I tell you to. I don't know how long it'll take, but it's our best bet at this point."

Rena wasn't going to have any problems with that at all, it was what she would have done to begin with. Outside of having to watch, her only problem was going to be keeping herself from healing Ashton until the time was right, which should be as soon as possible as far as she was concerned. "I think we should get started the second we know something's wrong. I don't care if the dragons are still there or not, we can't just sit back and..." she allowed herself to trail off. Bowman had made it very clear as to exactly what could happen in this room in a day or two.

"Yeah." Claude rolled his neck and looked to the others to gauge their reactions, not the least bit surprised to see them in agreement on this. "I'll trade spots with you once we get you up here, that way when you lift him up I can try to keep his feet elevated a little." If there was enough space there they might be able to put a box or one of those blocks of clay in front of it so that he could follow them up. It would also get him back in front of Ashton and between him and the mage they would be able to give the others regular updates on his condition from the front. He wondered if he should sneak some sheets in here with him, he was certain that their friend wouldn't appreciate everyone seeing him naked twice over if the ritual worked. Well, thrice over for Celine, but she didn't count and neither did he at this point.

Celine had been thinking the exact same thing. She would rather not go through that experience again, she was still daydreaming about torturing Gyoro to get back at him for what he had done. At least the demon seemed to have realized his error, if he hadn't been acting so apologetic and docile around her lately she might have revenged herself already while his host was asleep. "We're going to need to do some cleaning, I think. Everything seems rather dusty and I most definitely don't remember that being involved in any way."

Precis would rather be working on the clay, but Rena would probably wind up doing it if someone else didn't volunteer and she really didn't look like she needed to be spending all that much time here. "I'll do it. Or I'll get Bobot to do it. I programed him to do housework a couple months ago when I got really tired of cleaning up after my dad." She was a little disappointed with herself that she hadn't thought of the idea earlier as she wasn't exactly domestic by any stretch of the imagination and it just made sense. Maybe it just hadn't been exciting enough to really register before that.

Bowman had finally decided to get up off the floor, so Dias helped him get back on his feet along with Claude, trying to blink away the mental image of Bobot destroying the room that they presently stood in. There most likely wasn't any need for concern, Precis' invention was well behaved when left to its own devices and she had claimed to have modified it so long ago that all of the _'bugs'_ were most likely worked out. He didn't feel that he had anything to add to the conversation at this point, the only thing that he was concerned about was who would be delivering Ashton's belongings and meal to his room. He would most likely volunteer himself for that, the others might try to engage him in some way and the Elurian didn't need to be socializing again until he felt up to the task.

Bowman wasn't going to go anywhere near the Bobot comment, he was too emotionally drained from playing at being Ashton and explaining everything to allow himself to get riled up over anything Precis did right now. He couldn't wait for this to be over and to get back to Linga, he felt much better when he knew he could put as much space between them as possible at a moment's notice. Precis just wasn't good for his heart, he was certain that she would be a major contributing factor to his eventual death. "Sounds good. Let's get out of here and dig that book out."

/////

Ashton had no idea what time it was when he finally dragged himself from his bed and opened the door to find his belongings, a note, a glass of water and a plate of very cold food on the floor, but he did know that he was thankful that he had already emotionally exhausted himself to the point that he could ignore the guilt that crawled inside of him as he looked at it. He kneeled down and examined the note, realizing after a cursory glance that it had been left by Dias; the man never signed anything unless it was required and his penmanship was very distinguishable. Folding the note, he held it up as Ururun came forward to hold it for him while he gathered the glass and his travel bag, blinking slightly as he lifted it. The brunet wasn't certain, but it seemed a few pounds lighter than he remembered it being. Someone had probably just gone through it to grab the book, it wasn't that much of a bother, there wasn't anything in it tha.... _The letters._

He nearly dropped both the bag and the glass when that realization came to him, the shock of it managing to bring him out of the fog that the past hours had put him in. Hastening to the nearest available surface in the room, he came to the desk and started rummaging through it quickly. Depending on who had been the one to look for the book he might have a bit of trouble coming his way. Like if it was Bowman. He hoped it wasn't Bowman, the man would want to talk to him if he had read them, lend a sympathetic ear to his troubles and he didn't think he could handle a conversation like that right now. It would be even worse if it had been Claude or Rena or Precis. Claude and Rena would tag team him if he was lucky, but he wasn't, so that meant that they would enlist the help of Celine _and_ Bowman, maybe Dias and Precis as well for whatever plan they came up with. Precis might just tell everyone and then distribute the letters to everyone that already had one. He hoped to Tria that it hadn't been Precis, he didn't think he would be able to look at Celine or say _anything_, let alone what he really needed to tell her if she did the slightest thing that indicted to him that she knew that she didn't have one yet. They were still there, though, hidden inside the mass of sweaters that Celine had bought him, the twine still wrapped around them and the rest of the writing supplies he had managed to get ahold of in Clik. He still untied it and removed the notebook he had been using to keep them pristine, turning to them and making sure that they were placed, folded and turned between the unspent pages the same way that he remembered leaving them.

Gyoro grumbled and nudged at the side of his head gently, breaking him out of the trance he had fallen into as he stared down in relief at the open notebook and dropped it, snatching the glass from the desktop and draining it as quickly as he could and hugged the red demon's head to the side of his own with one hand. His gratitude had already been sent through their link, but he figured they both needed it given how severe Gyoro's recent punishment had been and his own frame of mind at the moment. Maybe he should stop tuning their thoughts out the way he was, he could hear their voices whispering in the back of his mind, but he couldn't translate any of their demonic thoughts. He'd do it later, he still needed some measure of privacy sometimes and just because they were aware of everything he thought no matter what any of them did, it didn't mean that he couldn't at least pretend occasionally. They understood why he did it in their own way, it wasn't quite how he would explain it and their reasoning lacked that key human element, but it was close enough for now. The brothers would understand soon enough. Hopefully.

Ururun slide himself around his host's side and dropped the note he was holding on the desk before positioning his head in the curve of the man's neck and jaw as best he could given the way his horns were placed. The dragons communicated with one another, well aware of Ashton's thoughts and thankful that he was finally allowing them to comfort him again; the recent maelstrom of emotions and broken thoughts that they had recently been subjected to had disturbed them greatly and left them distressed, confused and fearful for his wellbeing. They hoped that he would open his mind to them again soon, the last they had spoken or communicated with him had been around six, perhaps even seven or eight hours ago by their reckoning. The blue dragon purred as the man gathered the note with his free hand and withdrew the other one from Gyoro to run it along the underside of his jaw and neck, not to goad his other, but out of simple relief to be receiving such affection once more.

Ashton apparently had one more reason to love and respect Dias as much as he did, it seemed he had made it his duty to keep the others from checking on him while he was busy breaking down. He was fairly certain that no one had heard him, the walls were carved out of the mountain itself and the doors were surprisingly thick and well-fitted. Still, he hoped that Dias had stopped by while he was being quiet, it would be yet another thing to add to the long list of embarrassments that he had suffered during the past week and a half if he hadn't. He supposed it didn't matter, Dias wouldn't indicate to anyone that he had heard anything if he had and the other man wouldn't hold it against him, he would most likely sympathize or even empathize with him. Ashton didn't know how he knew that last part, but something told him that the he had probably gone through something similar once, Dias had an aura about him that spoke of old pain that might never be truly forgotten. He had never asked why that was and didn't intend to, if the other man wanted him to know about it then they would have already discussed it.

He didn't know what time it was, but something told him that everyone else would be asleep by now and it was safe to roam about, he needed to stop by the kitchen and clean the glass and plate. His body was stiff as well, if he couldn't relax himself by walking around then he would probably wind up in that giant tub until he felt like he could fall asleep again or he heard the sound of footsteps or voices. He would have to pay attention, he didn't feel like being caught in the nude by anyone, especially one of the girls. Ashton blanked his mind as he sorted through everything in his travel bag and removed the clothing and items he wasn't planning on using. If he continued that line of thought he would be stepping in to dangerous territory and might make himself angry with Gyoro again and he didn't want to repeat any of that. The red dragon seemed to realize it as well, he whined abashedly and lightly butted his head against his as Ururun moved back to his normal position to get out of the way. He wasn't going to open his mind enough yet to converse or feel anything they sent him, so he petted the demon as reassuringly as he could before he gathered the plate and the glass and headed towards the kitchen.

/////

Celine sighed to herself as she looked at her distorted reflection in the glass of the nearest flask, it appeared that she had acquired a rather lovely pressure mark on her forehead during her impromptu nap. At least she had done so here in the storage room, there were plenty of surfaces to check her face for temporary blemishes. The mage rubbed at the offending mark as she stood, not concerned with its twin on her left forearm and began to run her hands through her hair as she made her way into the hall. She was torn between going to the bathroom and fetching something to drink from the kitchen, but the kitchen was marginally closer assuming she didn't get herself lost on the way there.

Making her way inside the empty room, she headed for the cupboard and removed a small pot before filling it with water from the faucet and setting it on the stove to boil, she didn't trust it enough to drink it straight from the tap and would most likely be living off hot tea and other such drinks for the entirety of their stay here. She leaned against the counter lightly and wondered to herself whether she was hungry enough that she should scrounge about in the icebox or pantry for something to tide her over until breakfast, she had only been able to peck at the food that Rena had made for their evening meal and her stomach was starting to become slightly displeased with her. So long as she could locate something that didn't require actual cooking, she might do it. The mage almost made to move before the sound of footfalls reached her and she halted herself. If she was in luck, it might be one of the two people in their little group that could cook with some skill. If it was it would have to be Rena, she doubted Ashton would be up at such an impossible hour after the events of the previous day.

She'd be surprised. Or she was surprised, just as much as he was when he rounded the corner and found himself fighting the sudden urge to run at the realization that there was already someone in the kitchen before the fact that it was Celine registered and he froze from uncertainty. "Ah....Hi." Great, he was pretty sure he had never, ever felt _this_ awkward around her before. Not even after she had used that aphrodisiac in Fun City or she had tripped on that shopping bag he had put down in a bad spot in Lacour and.... He really didn't need to be listing these things in his head like this, he'd be stuck here all day reliving events again just like he had last night and he just shouldn't be thinking about this at all to begin with right now.

Well, at least it was a pleasant one. "Hello, darling. Would you like some tea in a bit?" Assuming she didn't manage to burn the water somehow. Now that he was here to distract her she just might manage it. He didn't look very well at all and hadn't even touched his meal judging by the look of the plate in his hands, but she knew that the same could be said for her. Celine supposed that she might just brave the stove and attempt to cook something if he was hungry as well, she wouldn't be letting him do it. Bowman and Dias were right in their assessment of the situation, he really did need some time to himself to relax and sort everything out. She did as well. They had done their best come to terms with what would be happening together and while it had helped, it hadn't given them the type of space that was needed to truly accept the situation they were facing. Really, they might not even be able to accomplish that, there were still far too many things left unsaid at the moment and even if they were said, Celine had a feeling that it might just make everything worse at this point.

"Um, maybe." He didn't think he could give her a definite answer, he wasn't sure that he would be able to adjust himself to being alone with anyone again so soon after everything that had happened, despite the way her presence tended to set him at ease. Maybe he should start moving into the room, he didn't want to leave the cleaning to whoever it was that wound up doing the dishes after breakfast.

Celine managed to smile at him before she turned her attention to the sink and started preparing it for the task he had obviously come here for. She should probably leave, but she wasn't able to bring herself to, they needed to relax themselves around each other's presence again before she finished his crests tomorrow. The mage was certain that the preparations for the ceremony would be complete by the end of the day, the mixture was rather heavy when it was completed and if they dedicated themselves to it they would easily be able to finish it before their evening meal. Still, she wasn't looking forward to the next two days in the least, she would rather hold it off for as long as they could, but that wouldn't be fair to anyone.

He made his way to her side when she started preparing the sink for him, he had a feeling that if he stood by the doorway for too long she would come over and take the dishes from him and do the job herself. "You don't have to do that." He busied himself by cleaning off the plate, dumping the food that was on it into the trash before looking over to her.

"Maybe not, but I want to." She wouldn't do the dishes for him now that he had finally moved, she wasn't sure if he had the energy for it but she didn't want to give him a chance to become stubborn as he was wont to do when they were together at times. "At least this much, it's not as though it's a bother for me to turn the tap on, after all." She turned away from the sink and leaned against the counter beside it, her arms wrapping themselves around her midsection as she studied him, watching him move and trying to gauge his current mood.

Well, that was true. He wasn't quite sure what to say now or how to act around her, the most he was able to do was make an affirmative noise in the back of his throat before thanking her quietly and moving beside her to complete his task. He wanted to ask her why she was up at such an odd hour, she was still fully dressed but had that look about her that she only got after just waking. He hoped that she was sleeping well, he didn't want her to be so upset by all of this that she was losing sleep over it.

Celine needed to get him talking, otherwise he would leave the room as quickly as he could and then they would be even more uncomfortable than they would already be when she finished his crests. "I've been wondering about something."

"Oh. What would that be?" Her tone was casual, so he was fairly sure that he didn't need to bolt from the room. The urge to escape was fading swiftly, so long as their conversation didn't make an uncomfortable turn and stay the course, he might be able to relax himself enough to have an actual conversation again.

"Well, we still need to finish everything up. Do you have a time in mind that you think you would be ready for it?" She doubted that he needed to be reminded about _that _at all, but they did need to complete the spell that they were inking into his skin before the ritual was prepared for.

He set the glass aside to dry, his brows furrowing as he thought. Ashton wasn't sure when he would feel together enough again to go through all of that and he was frightened that he might just blurt something out if he was around her for too long, but that was something he was going to have to deal with. There was a lot that he needed to deal with. He needed to cut a hole in his sheets or come up with another way of hiding himself for one thing, it would be a bit too much if he had to hold something in place for hours on end. His hands would probably wind up in her way and he wasn't sure if he could handle too much contact right now that wasn't the dragons. "Probably later in the day. I....We might as well do it all at once and I still need to hide out some more, I think." At least that way he might finally be able to write to her and get everything sorted in his head. He was probably going to wind up saying _something_ sooner or later, it might as well make some sense when he did it.

That sounded reasonable enough, it would give them both time to prepare themselves for it at the very least. "Our regular evening time, then?" It would be longer than their usual sessions but not by much, the crests in the areas that they would be working on were merely chained formations that served to connect one end of the spell to the other. The water seemed to have come to a boil, but she would give it at least another minute or two to kill whatever might be in it. She wondered if that would even work as whatever bacterias were in it made their home in a hot environment to begin with. Besides, the others hadn't fallen ill yet or even reported a slight upsetting of the stomach to her knowledge. She would ask him after this, it would be a relief to know for certain and whether she was just worrying about silly things to get her mind off everything else.

He liked that thought, for some reason it struck him as a return to normalcy. "Yeah. Sounds good." He didn't know how, but he managed a small smile at that. Turning his head towards her, he made sure that she could see it, his hair was falling around his face and she might not be able to otherwise. It was a good thing they had bumped into each other, she was having that calming effect on him that she normally did and he was starting to feel like himself again, bit by bit. He needed to tell someone about the letters, he realized, someone needed to know about them just on the off chance that he didn't make it. He couldn't do that to her, though. Well, he didn't want to do it to any of them, but....Dias would be the best person for that, he'd have to come out of hiding to tell him about them.

She was very relieved to see that smile, it told her that he was recovering and coming back to himself again and brightened her own mood in response. Returning the expression, she clicked her tongue lightly as he turned back to the sink to rinse off the plate and shifted her gaze to the stove again. If he was relaxing as well as he seemed to, then he best stay for tea with her until she had to run to the bathroom. "Now, I want an honest opinion on this. Am I being silly about the water or should I go on and let it boil for another fifteen minutes?"

If it hadn't been for the light tone she had spoken in he might have started to turn uncomfortable at her opening. He put the plate beside the glass and turned to consider the stove, humming lightly. She teased him on a regular basis, it was only fair to return the favor occasionally. "_Well_...." Who was he kidding, they both knew that he couldn't lie convincingly to save his life, if he didn't always smile through it the way he did around people who knew him and laugh when he knew he was caught, it might be a different matter altogether. She knew it too, she was giving him a look that told him that she knew exactly what he was trying to pull. "It's fine," he chuckled lightly as he said it, nowhere near the laugh that would normally accompany the confession but given the situation he was still amazed by it. "I was the same way before Ururun would up in control one morning and decided not to bother with it due to the heat. I guess the crests take care of that too." If they kept this up he might not need to spend as much time hiding as he had been planning.

"You're absolutely terrible for teasing me like that." She gave his arm a light, playful slap and did her best to turn her expression serious. "Grab a pair of cups for us, will you? I think I'll hold you hostage for a bit to make up for it." Celine was going to make him prepare the tea as well if he didn't do it himself, she rather enjoyed watching him be domestic. It had been a novel sight for her at first, most of the warriors that she had ever met couldn't do much more than roast a rat over an open fire or dry some meat to make jerky. She really did need to learn how to cook one day, she could manage an edible meal occasionally, but for the most part she wouldn't feed her worst enemy the creations that she turned out. At least when he messed up in the kitchen it was more often or not just his luck at work and he didn't set fire to anything, she had no such excuse. She could still take pride in her alchemy, art and metalwork, at least. Of course, including alchemy in that list was cheating to some degree, but it wasn't her fault that she had been born blessed.

He almost wanted to keep going and rub his arm at her for that, but she'd barely touched him and she might do it again, she was turning playful as their mood improved and she woke up. It was a good thing there weren't any beds around, otherwise she might have started tickling him until he retreated and fell back on one of them and who knows where that would lead. He really wished that Claude had chosen a later date to enlighten him, these thoughts were distracting. Speaking of distractions, he needed a new one. He retrieved two mugs from the cupboard beside him as he spoke. "Are the teabags in the pantry?" They would need a few other things as well, but he would worry about that later unless she decided to beat him to it.

"I would think so. I wasn't here to help the others unpack, but I would think that would be where Rena would want them. I can't see her not being in charge of this room." Celine was almost afraid to see what the kitchen looked like in their leaders' new house once it was completed, she just knew that it would put all but the finest restaurants to shame. Claude was going to be a very large man in fifteen or twenty years if he didn't keep himself active, his fiancée would undoubtably keep him supplied with culinary temptations, she was quite sure of that. The mage and the Nedian would have to schedule regular play dates for the two of them, she would hate to see such a thing happen to the blond considering that his frame wouldn't carry that type of excess weight well. Not that any of the men or women of their group would, but she worried about Claude more than the others given how he could eat at times and how sedate day to day life for him seemed anymore. She would be worried about Ashton in the same way if he ever settled himself down and it wasn't the dragons that seemed to eat most of the food that was ever put in front of him. Unless hamburgers were on the menu, then all bets seemed to be off.

The teas were, in fact, in the pantry, several varieties by the looks of it. It seemed Rena had been anticipating the difficult nights ahead, there were three different ones that were drank specifically to encourage sleep. He almost listed them out loud, but he caught the expression she wore from the corner of his eye and grabbed one blindly. He had the feeling that he had just missed a joke of some sort. "What?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." As if she was going to tell him. Really, she might just ask Rena to teach her how to cook that meal specifically; she wasn't about to bribe him with _barrels_, but she would use his favorite food against him. She would have to be careful with that, it would be all too easy for him to return the favor if he caught on. It looked like he might be planning a little revenge of his own at the moment, the box of tea in his hand appeared to be the variety that put her to sleep after a while. At least she would enjoy it, she was rather fond of the aroma it gave off and the mild but sweet, flowery taste it had.

He had definitely missed something. Still, she seemed pleased enough with whatever he had grabbed, so he looked down at it and searched for the honey and maybe a bottle of lemon juice or one of the actual fruits themselves, Rena had to have bought at least one of those unless she was expecting everyone to drink their tea straight. Opera was the only person that he remembered doing that regularly, even Dias put at least a bit of lemon in his most of the time. He managed to find both the honey and a lemon and turned back to her, giving her a look to let her know that he wasn't fooled by that as he set his extra supplies down, picked up the mugs and made his way over to the stove.

"I told you, it was absolutely nothing." He best watch it with that look of his, she might just get him back for it later. Hopefully he remembered that she only took a dab of honey in the sweeter varieties of teas, she would hate to have the sweetness knocked out of it.

He remembered. The lemon was for him, he wasn't in the mood for anything sweet, but the tea might help him get some actual sleep. It seemed like a waste to cut into it for only one person, but it should keep in the icebox for a few days. He was going to keep giving her looks until she told him or managed come up with a subject change that would distract him from it, he had a feeling that whatever it had been was connected to him somehow. They were the only people in the room, after all.

Brilliant, now he was doing it while steeping the tea. He was going to spill the water and burn himself if he wasn't careful. This had somehow turned in to one of their little games, so they might as well play it to its conclusion. "A little thought might have come to me on a whim."

"Hm. About a person?" He really didn't know how this had become so frequent between them, it was practically a tradition now whenever one of them caught the other with a certain expression on their face.

She found herself entranced by the water falling from the pan as he moved on to the second mug. He better not hurt himself over such a silly game. "Yes, that's right." Really, she swore he had no common sense at times.

He looked back down to check on the mug and sat the pan down, she was looking a little disconcerted and worried. He'd seen that expression on her face enough already. "Are they awake?"

Oh, thank Tria. It looked as though his senses had been restored to him. "They are." She wondered if he was feeling playful enough to take the long way to her eventual answer. It would certainly keep them entertained while they waited on the tea.

Going the long way was a forgone conclusion at this point; the longer their conversation stayed as light as it was, the more removed they both seemed to become from the current situation. "In this room?"

Celine smiled at him and nodded, her eyes not leaving his now that there were no other distractions about. They might be here for a while.

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Sturmgeschuts: I sent you a reply privately, but you brought up a point that others might be concerned about and I wrote and sent it right after waking up, so I'd like to take a moment to explain my interpretation of Bowman publicly.

My Bowman is under a great deal of stress at the moment. He's away from his pregnant wife, is in charge of Ashton's care before and after the ritual, has spent quite a bit of time alone with Precis already, was nearly attacked by Gyoro and was actually attacked by him several times in the past and in Clik. If his mention of punching a wall concerned anyone, I've touched on a bit of backstory I've created several times; his relationship with the dragons is very strained and Ashton couldn't monitor or discipline them when they last travelled together. Also, it's been my experience that nearly all male friends eventually end up scuffling sooner or later. Claude mentions that he and Ashton came very close to outright attacking each other once and it can safely be assumed that the situation had deteriorated to the two of them getting a little physical before he walked away. Maybe I just hang around the wrong type of men, though. Either way, I think that given all of these factors Bowman would need the patience of a saint to not release it in an aggressive manner when properly stressed. I think my Bowman is more in line with his in-game representation in his lighter scenes, to be honest, but I felt the need to flesh several of the characters out a bit more than the game does and he's one of my mouth pieces more often than not for some reason, it's through those characters that I make little comments both to myself and the reader as I write. It's also why he tends to curse more often, I'm afraid I have a bit of a potty mouth. It's all artistic license run amok, but it's too fun to indulge in for me to stop.


	9. Chapter 8

Summary: It's preparation time! A wee bit dark like the last chapter was, I suppose.

Author's Note: I finally managed to fix my keyboard, so now the (,) and (.) keys function properly. I also got Pages' proofreader function to stop spitting out weird recommendations like capitalizing words in the middle of sentences and odd repeats to stop occurring when I transferred files to NeoOffice to upload them, so I'll probably be editing less in the future as it's not so much of a hassle anymore to fix typos and delete all the extra semicolons that I used when severely annoyed. Not really anything Author Notey about that, but I figured if anyone was getting emails on this they'd appreciate the fact that I'm not going to be flooding their inbox quite so much in the future.

Warnings: Talk of bodily harm, medical procedures and a few other minor things like Bowman and Claude's dirty minds. I almost didn't bother with the warning this time as this stuff is becoming par for the course, but there might be someone squeamish or seriously repressed out there, so here you go.

Disclaimer: The characters and world are property of Square-Enix, the only thing I'm getting out of this is a distraction from homework and studying.

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It hadn't taken long for everyone to realize that they had somehow managed to forget to take the straps that emerged from the chair into account in their run through last night. The hesitancy that the realization had provoked had been instantaneously palpable, so Dias had volunteered himself to rectify the situation. He seemed to be doing that a good deal lately. Still, it kept him busy enough and he knew now that none of the others would be trying to search out and actively engage Ashton; Celine had managed to cross paths with the man in the wee hours of the morning and given them a full report and passed on his wishes to them. He seemed to be coping better than expected judging from the description that the mage had provided less than an hour ago and Dias was honestly surprised that he had even bothered socializing at all, regardless of who it had been or Ashton's feelings for them. The Arlinian could imagine himself in the Elurian's situation easily enough and realized that under the same circumstances he would most likely have shut everyone out as completely as he had after his family had been slaughtered before his eyes.

He needed to stop thinking about this and get to work on finding a suitable solution for getting the straps in place quickly after Bowman cut the other brunet to keep him from involuntarily moving his limbs from either anxiety, pain or worse. They had already decided that they would be cutting the straps off and had found suitable knives for the job, each one easily sharp enough to cut through the thick leather. Claude had insisted on sharpening them further and that appeared to have become his busy work for the little time there was left before they would gather in the supply room and begin their work on the clay. His own laid here.

Situating himself in the reclining depression that their companion would be secured in, he came to the conclusion that the straps that would restrain the chest, stomach and hips could be safely secured at their leisure. He worked the line of restraints that ran over the his left forearm and up to the pit of his shoulder as tightly as he could before suddenly surging against them and found his arm completely immobile. That would work. He wondered vaguely whether Ashton would be coming out of this with a few broken bones; Bowman had said that he would most likely experience something called a tonic-clonic seizure if he had any at all, and they were apparently quite violent and disturbing to witness. Still, Rena's powers would easily heal them assuming the breaks were relatively clean and the bones didn't move too far out of their regular positions. They most likely wouldn't, he would be laying in a natural position and the force of any convulsions he suffered from would be met by the strength of the leather straps and held in place by the curves and grooves of the leg and armrests themselves. If he was wrong, though, any warped bones would need to be broken and reset to their natural positions before they could be healed properly, most likely once they removed him from the chair and while they worked on him. To make matters worse, Bowman was hesitant to introduce any hard substances into Ashton's body either before, during or afterwards as it would be stressed enough as it was. It seemed their companion would suffer from a rather rude awakening if his bones needed to be reset.

Undoing the buckles that ran the length of his trapped appendage, Dias turned his arm so that the bottom of his forearm was exposed and facing inwards before lifting it as far as he could without the straps coming free of the buckles and examined the amount of room that the pharmacist would have to work in. He wasn't certain whether the man would choose to be between the other brunet's legs or to the side for his work, but the extremities in question could be moved to a position that he could make the incisions easily either way as the straps were lengthy enough to provide plenty of room and Bowman would be holding a penlight in his teeth as he made the incisions, apparently. The leg restraints were most likely constructed in a similar manner but he still checked them as best he could, repeating the process that he had just completed on his left arm with his right before moving on to them as his estimation of the straps' strength might have been off due to him using his non-dominant side for the procedure. Finding confirmation of his original finding, he moved to his legs and repeated the process before examining their length and coming to the conclusion that there would be ample room for the pharmacist to complete his task no matter what position he chose.

His experimentation completed, he removed himself from the chair and studied it. Ashton would have to insert himself into the straps in a rather odd manner for what Dias was planning, but he was certain that the other man could accomplish it; even discarding the unusual center of gravity that the addition of the demons to his back had given him, the man was agile and flexible enough that it should present little difficulty for him. Still, he wanted to test it and he wouldn't request his assistance for that. Bowman would find himself roleplaying his patient again, it would be too distressing for Claude to ask him to do so. He would need something to bore a hole in the ends on the straps and a supply of thin but strong rope for what he was going to set up. If they couldn't find either of those then his task would be even more time consuming, especially the rope as he would need strong but flexible material that could be braided to reinforce it but still be slim enough to be secured through the holes he would make yet resist tearing when pulled quickly. Dias wasn't concerned about doing the actual buckling, he and Precis would be able to hold the arm and leg restraints in place while Celine or Claude handled their securement. Bowman would have other concerns and he firmly believed that Rena should be kept as far from Ashton as possible until she was called on to heal him.

It had been the shadow that crawled swiftly over the wall before falling down to the floor and disappearing that alerted him to the presence of another, the lack of accompanying noise indicating to him that whoever it was wore no shoes and was trying to be unobtrusive and stealthy. It would have to be Ashton. At least he was feeling well enough to wander the halls to such a degree; the room he had chosen for himself was located by the library and far from this area. Turning himself fully from the door, Dias focused his gaze back to the chair and went over his plans again, attempting to give him as much privacy as possible. The other man wasn't in the mood for that, it seemed, he could feel his presence hovering behind him by the entrance and could see his shadow stretching itself across the room again, its head resting to the side of his feet. He looked over at him then and found him staring down the hallway, his body shifted at an angle slightly towards the room. The swordsman descended the stairs of the platform, making his way to him slowly and coming to a stop several feet away to give him a wide berth. He doubted that he needed to be crowded by anyone at the moment.

He was relieved that Dias had noticed him, he wasn't sure if he could stand to look directly in the room for more than a few seconds at a time or if he would have been capable of calling his name at this point, he had barely been able to look at or speak to Bowman when they had crossed paths. The pharmacist wanted to weigh him, check his vitals and a few other things, apparently. It must be a combination of his frame, the robe and all the dark colors he wore and that Celine had selected for him, he knew that the pharmacist's estimates were off as far as his weight was concerned. Ashton supposed he needed a secretary, it seemed his schedule was going to be busy later in the day and he'd rather not be the one making the appointments. At least he was done with the letters and had completely exhausted himself mentally and emotionally from what he could tell, so he might finally be able to take a bath and go to sleep after everyone to locked themselves in the supply room. He didn't think he would be able to eat anything as he had let another meal go cold and didn't feel hungry at all, but the pharmacist was concerned and if word got out that he wasn't eating he might have to deal with the others more than he could stand. He'd let Gyoro and Ururun have a little something, it was practically the same thing and that way he wouldn't have to do the actual eating. Hopefully they could keep him calm enough to keep him from getting sick afterwards. He needed to get his thoughts back to where they needed to be, the emotions the dragons were sending him were keeping him stable, but if this kept up he might just ask Ururun to take over and make the request himself. "....Um, well...I wanted to see if...if I could ask you to meet with me later. I need to ask you something." This subject matter of the discussion was going to be too private to do out in the hallway and he'd rather just get everything over with at once. Dias was perceptive enough to know where their meeting was going to take place, there was no need to spell it out.

It was best to keep this short so far as Dias was concerned, the more time the other man spent in the presence of others the more unstable he might become if he hadn't dealt with everything yet. That's how he had been, at least. "When?" He was well aware of how different the two of them were, but even so he didn't look up to the task of socializing for long periods of time yet.

"Whenever you get the chance. I'm...I don't think I'll be back for an hour and a half, so....After that I'll probably be asleep. There's not a lock, so just come in and wake me up." It wasn't as though Dias would visit while Bowman or Celine or Rena were in the room and he trusted his judgement above his own when it came to certain things. At least it was Dias he was talking to, he was so used to controlling all of his nervous ticks around the man that he wasn't stuttering or fidgeting despite everything else.

Waking Ashton was a trial within itself most days so far as he was concerned but it wasn't as though there was much choice in the matter, it looked as though he hadn't slept since he woke up yesterday morning. Dias nodded, hoping that he wasn't planning on taking a long bath in the timeframe he had supplied before he returned to his room, the way he looked he might fall asleep and drown himself.

The dragons would either get him up and moving or talk him into letting one of them take him over before that happened, they had plenty of practice with it. He nodded his head and retreated, raising one hand in farewell as he went. Dias had little patience for being repeatedly thanked, especially for little things, so it was best to forgo politeness for now and save it for later when it really mattered.

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Claude didn't care how artistic Celine was, if he ever saw her sculpting again he would immediately run outside to check for additional signs of the coming apocalypse. Between the crests and mosaics everywhere and the clay, he was hoping that none of his and Rena's kids had so much as a sliver of artistic talent between them. He rolled the large chunk of clay in his hands against the wooden board before him and shaped it in to a ball before flattening and depositing it lightly on top of the pile that was forming beside Precis. If the circumstances were different he would have set about helping her catch up, but he needed to stretch himself out and deflate for a few minutes. Ashton was probably asleep in his room or hiding out somewhere, but that didn't change the fact that he was having to resist the urge to track him down and just stare at him or something. It wasn't even about Celine anymore, it was just a need to know that he was still there. At least Rena would need to see him later tonight to heal him, so maybe if he was subtle about it and quiet enough he could stand outside the doorway to peek in and make sure for himself, it wasn't as though Bowman, Celine or Dias were going to let him tag along for their respective assignments or tell him if Ashton wasn't taking this whole thing very well.

It just seemed to be happening too fast. He had thought that it would take at least a few days to prepare the clay, but with the assembly line they had going they had already completed half of the mixture if Bowman's estimates where to be believed. The pharmacist seemed to have noticed him stand and was looking at him in a considering manner. Claude raised an eyebrow questioningly at him even as he felt Precis' eyes on his back and came to the realization that neither he or Rena had called for a break yet and that he was the one with the watch. Shaking his head at himself he checked the time displayed there and mentally adjusted it to the current time zone they were in and double checked himself in surprise. He definitely needed to reset it and hand the time keeping duties to someone else, he was supposed to have called for a break half an hour ago. Maybe he was just too out of it, he could have sworn someone had asked for the time a few minutes ago. His calculations must had been off, it was either that or he was so distracted with his thoughts that he had zoned out and forgotten to check his watch for an entire hour. Either way, they had completed enough of the mixture to allow for a very long break, one that would give them time to prepare lunch, eat it and relax for about an hour afterwards. "Let's get out of here for awhile." At least everyone else seemed satisfied with that as they moved to stand and stretch themselves out from their positions. Claude undid the clasp of his wristband and handed it off to Bowman after adjusting the time on it, it would help him estimate his patient's heart rate later and the older man might enjoy the distraction of it.

He didn't need additional distractions, there were enough of those bouncing around inside his brain already. That didn't stop him from accepting the watch and following the blond from the room and keeping pace with him, waiting for his presence to register again. Claude needed to calm himself down. They all did, but Bowman's largest concerns at the moment outside of his patient were the young man beside him, his fiancée, and Celine. The mage wasn't displaying her distress as plainly, but that was due to her having known the longest out of all of them and the way she had been secluding herself as much as she was able to. She was probably in her room by now, she had left the last time Precis had asked Claude to check his watch and hadn't been back since. The male half of their leadership team didn't seem to be paying much attention at the moment, so the pharmacist cleared his throat to get his attention.

"Uh?" Oh, Bowman was still there. He normally appreciated the pharmacist's habit of acting as their group's resident therapist, but he wasn't feeling inclined to talk much about his current feelings or thoughts right now. Claude made a sudden turn away from the others at the next intersection they came to and looked back to the older man once he judged there was enough distance between them and the rest of their group.

"I need some help moving the scale Dias and I found to Ashton's room. The way we're going I need to know his actual weight before we get back to work." Judging by what little reaction the other man had shown when he had given him his rough estimate of his weight, he was convinced that he had been wrong. Besides, it wasn't healthy for his patient to be alone constantly given the situation and they needed to remind him that there were people around for him to fall back on. The pharmacist was reasonably unconcerned with the notion that Claude would become excessively emotional at the sight of their resident recluse, and even if he did it might get his patient to open up to someone. Bowman didn't have as deep of a relationship with the other brunet as the blond did, if he attempted to talk with him about this his reaction would most likely be dismissive and evasive or even outright hostile unless someone loosened him up for it first.

Great, he was being so obvious that Bowman had decided to take pity on him. Rena must have realized his intentions, otherwise she would have followed them to see what they were discussing. If the circumstances were different he might have taken the opportunity to get back at Ashton for the way he had woken him up in Mars, he was sure that by now that their friend was passed out. He was going to have the pharmacist drug him if he wasn't. "Might as well get it out of the way, then."

"Yeah, before Dias does his meal run to keep him from kicking us out." He was going to be about six hours early for his appointment and be bringing company along with him to boot, but the other brunet probably wouldn't take offense and he would get over it quickly enough if he did. Bowman was probably going to wind up mixing a sleeping aid for him considering how he had looked when he had last seen him.

That was accurate enough. Dias must have been a bouncer in a previous life, he was far too adept at keeping people from attempting to enter Ashton's room for there to be any other explanation. Claude fell in step behind the other man as he took the lead, following him to his room and watching him gather his medical bag before helping him lift the mechanical column scale onto the flat bed utility cart that Precis had made after breakfast and pushed it out and in the hallway. Maybe he should check to see if she had enough left over in her material kit to make a wheelchair of some sort, he had a feeling that Ashton wouldn't be able to walk very well for a few days after the ritual was completed. Even discounting the blood loss and weakness that it would cause his balance would be off just as it had been before he adapted to the weight of the dragons on his back. Yeah, definitely going to give Precis yet another assignment after this is over. She wouldn't mind being called on like that, especially if it got her out of the ceremonial storage room for awhile.

The younger man beside him might be lost in thought, but at least he remembered where he was going, Bowman was still having to wander the halls and keep an eye out for the glove that his patient had yet to pick up outside his door. Speaking of the glove, there it was. He hoped that his assessment of Celine's behavior earlier had been right, he didn't feel like walking in on anything and given the situation she might have decided to jump her paramour and make it official. And now he needed more brain bleach. Maybe one day he would learn his lesson and figure out how to tune himself out. His patient might be able to help him with that if he wasn't getting ready to scar him for life, he really would be insane by now if he hadn't figured out some way to ignore the dragons' thoughts. Given his own he wasn't altogether certain how he managed to open the door at all, let alone as quickly as he did, but the pharmacist had done it and forcibly restrained himself from sighing loudly in relief at the distinct lack of Celine in the room as Claude wheeled the scale in.

The blond would have started cheering the two of them on once the shock wore off it they had indeed walked in on that. Maybe that was what the two of them needed to release everything and relax, if he had known the pharmacist's thoughts he would have seriously considered asking him to mix a couple doses of aphrodisiac so that they could douse them with it and lock their friends in the room together for a few hours. Luckily for Ashton, Bowman and Celine he hadn't, so he and made his way over to the bed as the pharmacist sat his bag down on the desk and started removing his exam equipment. There was a trick to waking the sleeping man that none of the others knew about and he had kept secret for years, but at least it would be coming out now as it might not work after tomorrow or maybe even tonight if they were feeling masochistic enough once they were done with the preparations. Ashton was sleeping mostly on his side for once with his shoulder extended and the arm beneath him curled up under his pillow to make Gyoro comfortable, and Claude came to the conclusion that he really had been trying to give himself a cold the other night; it didn't look as though he had even bothered toweling off his hair before he went to bed. That hadn't stopped either of the demons though, the two of them were curled up and over their host protectively as if they thought that their presence could ward his troubles away. Both dragons were watching them now and refusing to move from their positions, so Claude went ahead and gave Ururun his signal and waited to see if he would comply with his request.

The blue dragon wanted to ignore the humans and return to the vigil that he and his other were engaged in as their host not yet reached a deep enough level of unconsciousness to gain any benefit from it and the pharmacist and his companion were exceedingly early by the demons' reckoning. Gyoro opined that he should spit fire at the older male and send them off, but Ururun disagreed as that would only serve to agitate their host further and he would likely awaken from the activity or the men's shouts of alarm. Ururun woke his host as gently as he was able considering the action he was preforming, exhaling lightly but directly against his back and startling him awake.

Bowman didn't know how he and the other men had never thought of that. He managed a small smile when his patient startled awake and gasped the offending dragon's name half in shock and half in anger as the dragon quickly shifted himself to his host's front to give him an apologetic look. "Sorry about that, but we're a little early."

_We?_ Ashton turned his head as far as he could over his shoulder at that and found both Bowman _and_ Claude behind him. His mind wasn't clear enough to form coherent thoughts yet, so he just blinked rapidly at the two men behind him before the dragons began shifting themselves as they normally would when he got out of bed from this position and he followed them automatically. That was one of the good things about having the two of them connected to him as they were now, at least one of the three of them were guaranteed to be clearheaded enough to direct the other two in any situation they found themselves in. "What time is it?" _Did I hide the letters?_

_Yes._

_Oh, good._ It was a good thing that Gyoro was so confident and incisive, Ururun seemed to be taking a moment to remember exactly where they were hidden before responding. He shook his head, partially to clear it but also at the demon. So long as they were out of sight, he didn't care about their exact location.

"Ah," Claude had given up his watch privileges for the day, but that wasn't going to stop him from giving an estimate. "Half past noon, I think." He was probably so off it wasn't even funny, but he was too relieved to see the other man lucid and somewhat himself again to care. Openly staring at him would probably upset or destabilize him somehow, so the blond turned his attention to the scale and braced himself before lifting it and setting it down on the ground as gently as he could. Man, that thing was heavy. He should have waited for Bowman to stop studying his patient and help him with it.

Claude was an alien who was engaged to a woman from yet another advanced alien race that also happened to be blessed with innate healing magics, so Bowman wasn't too concerned about him hurting himself. If he had a history of pulled back muscles like their companion did, then he might have been worried. "Close enough. Like I said, sorry about being early, but we're running ahead of schedule and I want to figure out your actual weight." There was still some part of the pharmacist that wanted to say that his estimates were right now that he was looking at Ashton without a shirt on again, but he also knew that Dias had fooled him too when they had tested the scales. He couldn't believe their exceptionally tall friend weighed only eight pounds more than he did. "We'll take yours first then take care of those two and subtract theirs."

He wasn't altogether sure how he felt at the moment, he was emotionally numb enough that the demons on his back were't sending anything but he still didn't want to be around anyone for too long. At least the blond's presence would keep the shorter brunet from questioning him while he was in the room, but if either of them stayed afterwards and tried to talk to him he was afraid that he might break down again. They were both keeping their distance and only maintaining eye contact of a few seconds, so it might be okay so long as everything stayed casual. "Now?"

Claude tossed the taller man a _'duh'_ look as Bowman nodded his head slowly. Maybe he _wasn't_ altogether lucid yet, it wasn't like they had brought the scale in because they thought it was the best thing ever and wanted to show it off to somebody. "How much do you think he weighs?" He had a feeling that the pharmacist's guess was wrong even if he hadn't heard it yet. The two brunets avoided being within arm's reach of each other out of habit thanks to Gyoro and the most contact he'd ever seen between the two of them was when they got in that shoving and shouting match that almost turned into a real fight after the red demon nearly set both Bowman and their hotel room on fire in Central City. It was a good thing Ashton had ducked that punch the other man had thrown at him at the last possible second and ran from the room, given the way the dragons had reacted to it Bowman might not have made it if he had connected instead of getting stuck in the wall like he had.

If they made it through this Gyoro was going to be on a very short leash; the last thing he needed was him attacking either Bowman or Dias. Ashton doubted he would do it unprovoked now as between his two most recent punishments the danger and inappropriateness of it seemed to have finally registered. He was certain that either of the two men could kill him easily enough if they wanted to and the three of them were still going to be connected after this, so unless the red demon had a death wish he would need to learn to control his temper. He wasn't thinking about that at the moment, though, he busy walking forward and glancing at Claude in a way designed to let him know that he knew it already and that their older friend was _wrong. _The expression the blond had shot his way before that was so familiar at this point it he didn't bother responding to it and it didn't look like his 'doctor' had noticed so he wasn't going to get embarrassed over it.

Bowman bounced his head from side to side swiftly as he looked to the ceiling and Ashton stepped on the scales. Judging by the tone of the blond's voice and the expression he had caught on the other brunet's face when he had asked that question, he had the feeling that he was off. Might as well admit to it. "Eh, I'd say about seventy kilos." Apparently if the University fair ever needed an attendant for the 'Guess My Weight' booth he should knock himself out of the running; he'd wind up giving away so many toys and souvenirs he'd bankrupt the entire town.

Claude caught the way Ashton had glanced at him and smiled conspiratorially in return before Bowman made his confession and he snorted in amusement. Now he was wondering how much the doctor thought that _he_ weighed, considering the older man had just given a rough estimate of his own and he knew for a fact that Ashton was around twenty pounds heavier than him now even without Gyoro and Ururun's own weight taken into account. Claude was confident that the dragons weighed around fifteen pounds each, he had handled them enough in the past to get a feel for it. If Ashton and his passengers didn't come in somewhere around ninety kilos once Bowman was done playing around with the scale, he'd be shocked.

He was relieved Claude was here now, their exchange had managed to lift him out of his emotional stupor just enough that he could feel again and it was keeping him distracted from just how close to him Bowman was as he manipulating the weigh beam. The younger brunet didn't know his exact weight, but given how often he had needed to order new robes in the past three years due to the back, shoulder and side seams straining or ripping apart he knew that he had gained enough that it took him out of the pharmacist's estimates. If he had guessed his weight right after meeting him the lower estimate he had shared with him earlier would have been close, but the dragons had been on his back for so long that his upper body had changed so much in response to them that it was almost as if he had gone through a second puberty. Bowman seemed to have forgotten all about that one and Claude couldn't see one side of his face, so he raised the eyebrow that was out of his best friend's view at the other brunet.

Okay, so he was trying to save face and Anchors knew it. The younger man was being sure to keep his knowledge away from his blond friend and Bowman found himself slightly surprised by that, the two of them seemed to be going through their normal mental de-aging process right before his eyes and he'd almost expected him to call him out on it despite those ingrained manners of his. Moving the weights on the scale completely out of range of his lowest estimate, he minutely nodded his head at him in recognition of his mercy and sought out his and the dragons' combined weight.

Claude had to fight the urge to let out a victorious whoop when the scale stabilized at the ninety-three mark. He should have called time out to make a bet with the pharmacist before their friend had stepped on to it, he could have gotten something out of that. "Okay, so how do we figure out what's up with the dragons?" The blond was positive that they could just subtract thirty pounds and arrive at a ballpark figure, but Bowman was almost as curious as Ururun most of the time and probably wanted to know their exact weight just for the hell of it.

That was a little shocking, he hadn't expected the three of them to weigh _that_ much. "Um, I think if I laid on the floor and leaned up on my elbows one of them could curl themselves on it." The dragons both tended to weigh the same amount as long as one of them hadn't eaten more than the other within the past few minutes, but if he mentioned that then Bowman's curiosity might take over and he wasn't sure what would come of that.

"Let's do it." Bowman stepped back slightly as Claude helped his patient get down on the ground and Gyoro glared at him warningly while his brother ignored him. The red demon started suddenly as his host shifted and gave him a threatening look over his shoulder and Ururun descended to rest on the platform of the scale and curled up on himself like a snake. The pharmacist rolled his eyes at the dragon's behavior, almost wishing that he and his brother were giving Dias the same treatment still and reset the scale to calculate their weight. Anchors was going to have to put a sign in his yard and a spiked collar with a very loud bell around Gyoro's neck, it might be the only way to give other people fair warning. Arriving at Ururun's weight, he calculated Ashton's and shook his head at himself for how much he had been off. The other brunet somehow managed to weigh a few more pounds than Bowman did himself. "We're going to have to mix about thirty more pounds of clay than I thought we would."

"Ah, sorry."

Claude almost rolled his eyes at Ashton as he helped him up off the floor and settled for shaking his head at him instead. "Trust me, it won't take that long to mix. It'll take an hour, tops." He needed to check with Bowman, but he was fairly certain that they had already mixed almost enough for one of the golems in the three hour session that they had just completed. It brought up an entire new set of questions, though. "When do you want to do this?" He was directing that mostly at the heraldic swordsman, but the pharmacist's opinion was just as crucial as his at this point. Maybe he should track down Rena and Celine, Ashton might not be able to handle that many people around him right now, but if they were going to discuss this then they would need to their input as well. Dias and Precis were important too, but Dias would handle it better than the rest of them no matter what was decided and Precis would most likely want this over with at the first available opportunity if she had her say. Not that he could blame her, some part of him felt the same way.

Bowman hoped that the Earthling knew what he was doing, he needed to get Ashton's resting heart rate and blood pressure and if he got so agitated he couldn't calm himself down in an hour or so he might need to drug him. The pharmacist was trying to avoid that, but he would do it if it came to it. Still, it might be easier if they did it tonight; the clay mixture needed to be moistened once every hour and he had a feeling that most of them wouldn't be getting much sleep until they had attempted to complete the ritual. They should probably skip supper if that was the case.

Maybe Claude being here wasn't a good thing after all. He couldn't tell what had stunned him more, his best friend's question or the sudden, intense flood of soothing emotions and thoughts that the dragons were sending him. They better not hug him, he would shut them out as completely as he had last night if they did.

The blond studied his reaction for a few long seconds as it slowly began to shift from shock to vehement indignation before he looked to Bowman and violently jerked his head at the entrance and waited for him to leave the room and shut the door behind him. The pharmacist didn't need to see or hear this, whatever was about to happen wasn't going to be something that he needed to witness. Ashton might be getting ready to fall apart and if that happened then Claude would follow and he would prefer that stay a private matter. It was that or they'd go in the opposite direction and they didn't need a referee getting in their way. "Look, I know it _sucks_ and it's sudden, but we need to know." He couldn't wait for this to be over and resolved and have everything back to how it was supposed to be, because this _definitely_ wasn't how he had envisioned their friend's eventual return.

If the dragons didn't stop thinking so loudly and sending emotions so intensely _right now_ he was going to do to both of them what he had done to Gyoro in Clik. _"I don't care."_ He couldn't hear himself think and neither could they at this point apparently, so he shut himself off from them and locked their minds down harshly and instantaneously, ignoring the dual jolts of intense mental pain that stabbed through him and the throbbing headache that formed in response immediately after as he turned his back to Claude and stalked to the other side of the room to put some space between them.

Oh, he really wanted to grab the brunet when he spat those words at him and walked away like that. "_You don't care that we need to know or you don't care that we get to watch you bleed out for five minutes?"_ Ashton was right, it was a lot easier to be pissed off right now. If Bowman knew what was good for him he'd stay out of this and keep away from Rena and the others until they were done.

He almost laughed in disbelief at that as he turned to look at the blond behind him. They should have done this sooner, it was a great distraction from everything else going on. No wonder Claude had gotten so angry at him after they had watched the Ten Wise Men kill his father and everyone else on the _Calnus_. And look at that, they even had a _timeframe, how cute_. _"...Either one."_ He dragged the back of his left hand under his nose at the sensation of something warm and wet trailing from one of his nostrils and didn't bother to look at it, he knew exactly what it was. If he hadn't done that to the dragons at the same time it wouldn't have happened, but he wasn't thinking clearly at the moment.

The blood and the casual way the other man had wiped it away almost startled him out of his anger completely. As it was it served as a reminder of just what was going to happen and that Ashton hadn't been informed yet of what they were planning. "_Look, we're not gonna let you die._ Bowman knows what to look for, the second we see anything we're going to pull you back whether the dragons are gone _or not_. _You're not going anywhere._"

He just had to say that, didn't he? He didn't want to hear that certainty in his voice, didn't want to be comforted or reassured; there was only one other way he could go at this point and he didn't want to _do_ that again. He was tired of breaking down, he'd spent the past—what?—eighteen or so hours doing exactly that. He needed to turn the conversation away from this. "....He's _a pharmacist_, not a doctor. Don't_ parade him around_ like he actually _knows _what he's talking about."

It was way too late for that, the pause and the expression that had flashed across his face had given him away. Claude would guess that it had been the same one he'd worn when Ashton realized what was going on with him two years ago and started trying to talk him down. "If you pass out _you're gonna_ _wake up_. If you don't and you're still awake then _we'll be there_ when you fall asleep and when you _open your eyes ag-_"

"_Shut up. _Just_ shut up _and_ get out." _He wished he hadn't walked all the way across the room, if he'd stayed close by he would've been able to throw a punch at him and distract him from all of this.

If he really wanted to hit him he was about to get his chance. He stalked over towards him, talking all the while. He needed something that would shock him out of the state he was in and he was pretty sure he had exactly what was needed. Hopefully Rena wouldn't kill him when she found out. "_No._ _You're gonna to be here_. You're gonna be here because we won't_ let_ you be anywhere else. You've got an appointment in Arlia on the first day of spring and I'll make sure you're there for it if I have to kill_ myself _and drag _you back_ from wherever _you_ _end up_."

He wasn't angry enough anymore to hit him without being properly provoked first, he was too busy retreating in confusion and wondering what was so important about Arlia of all places and the first day of spring and how he had somehow wound up with _'an appointment'_ that he wasn't even aware of making. "What the _hell _are you_ talking about?"_

"Well, I need a best man and guess whose name got pulled out of the hat." He couldn't help it, he had to laugh at the way the brunet before him froze and stared at him in stunned silence. "You get it now?"

It was too bad he didn't have something in his hands, he might not be able to talk or punch Claude thanks to the shock he had just delivered, but he might have been capable of throwing something at him. He collapsed backwards on the bed beside him, forgetting about the dragons and not bothering to move even at that pain the landing had caused or the insistent feeling of discomfort that emanated from them and his back afterwards.

Yeah, it looked like that had worked. He needed to lay down too at this point, so he followed Ashton's lead and laid himself down on his stomach before leaning over and whispering conspiratorially to him. "Don't let Rena know that I asked you, we were supposed to do it together after the ritual was over."

The realization that he was on a bed and that beds had pillows on them came to him while his friend spoke, so he slowly moved his hand to the closest one and grabbed ahold of it before whacking the man beside him halfheartedly and leaving it there on his back. "…Okay." Maybe he should look over at Claude, the ceiling didn't hold much interest for him anymore considering he'd already seen it a thousand times in the past five months. His nose hadn't stopped bleeding yet, so he sniffed loudly and tilted his throbbing head back to let it drain down his throat as he wiped at the new trail that had formed with his left hand again before licking his right thumb and rubbing at it. The blood wasn't dry enough to be scratched off despite its smeared condition, but at least if he moistened it enough he could wipe it on his pants without anyone else being wise to it. Thank Tria his pajama bottoms were black and that it was Claude he'd been an idiot in front of, the blond wouldn't judge him for it or ask how it happened considering everything else going on.

He assumed it was the brunet getting some sort of backlash from the dragons going by the way they had started reeling a few seconds before the blood had appeared. At least he wasn't licking it off directly, that had always turned his stomach for some reason. He would get up to look for a box of tissues or a handkerchief or something, but given Ashton's issues there probably wasn't anything suitable in the room. Claude figured that if this whole thing worked the man beside him would loosen up to a stupefying degree since he would have real privacy again and wouldn't feel the need to repress things so much or abstain from a certain activity. He'd be sneaking tissues and maybe some oil or lotion in here to encourage him once everyone was done hovering over him. The brunet would thank him for it one day. Like, say, maybe the morning after Celine finally had her way with him. "Was that an 'Okay, I'll be you're best man,' or an 'Okay, I won't tell Rena?'" It better be both, if he said 'no' to either one he would start tickling him until he agreed, nosebleed be damned.

Bowman and Claude both needed psychiatric evaluations, they thought about that stuff _way_ too much. Then again, he had as well before Gyoro and Ururun came along. It was frighteningly easy after the first month or so, but it had been hell before he'd gotten used to it. Unless he was alone with Celine for any real amount of time, but at least that made sense now considering that he'd never had that problem around any other woman. "Uhm....Both." He managed to turn his head at that and absently wiped the back of his left hand on his pants, his expression confused as he studied the blond beside him. "How...how'd _that _happen?"

_Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. _"Well, when a man and a woman love each other _very much_ they—" Claude halted mid-sentence as the door flew open suddenly and two blue-headed blurs entered the room just as the pillow that he could have _sworn_ was still resting on his back whacked him forcefully on the back of the head.

Rena hadn't caught much of what her fiancé had said, but judging by the _'oh shit'_ look on both his and Ashton's faces she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew just how the two of them had gotten so cozy less than a minute after Bowman told them that the two of them might be fighting. "What are you two talking about?" If they didn't tell her she was going to stand over the brunet and make eye contact with him, she might have to strain to hear the disjointed words that were hidden underneath the laughter but she'd get her confession. Luckily for them Dias had taken off at the same time she had instead of trailing behind with the pharmacist and Celine; he'd be able to pull her away if the brunet was feeling tightlipped and their staring contest devolved into outright tickle torture.

"Um...f-f-funeral a-ar-arrangements." Well, that was what he was contemplating now. He wasn't psychic or anything, but Claude's thoughts had probably turned in that direction too. It was a good thing he hadn't lost his grip on the pillow, it meant that he could cover his face with it.

_Coward._ "Yeah, funeral arrangements." They might need to get Ashton checked out, he was considering the same thing at the moment. "He keeps going on about white lilies being traditional, but I think they're boring." A closed casket would probably be best option at this point.

He'd thought about that, but if Celine loved him as much as he claimed she did then she might take pity on him. Cremation didn't sound _that_ bad and it would spare them the expenses of embalming and the casket and everything else. They could just dump him outside the temple once she was done.

It appeared that Ashton had decided to start exceeding his expectations again. Dias shifted his weight to one side and leaned against the door as he watched his fellow male Expellian for signs of agitation. He wasn't going to be getting involved in this, if he tried to diffuse the situation his surrogate little sister would start tickling him along with Ashton and then his big secret would be out. The younger men should know better than to be evasive, though, the Elurian was easily one of the top ten worst liars on the planet and the expressions that had been on their faces when their presences registered had already given the topic of their conversation away.

She didn't know why either of them were even attempting to lie to her, it wasn't as though they didn't know what she was going to do. Rena made her way over to the bed and began pulling on the pillow Ashton had covered his face with as Claude buried his head in the covers and the sound of rapid footfalls drifted to them from the hallway. Realizing that they would have company soon and not caring, she leaned over and tickled the man below her on the base of his ribs with one hand and pulled the pillow away from him with the other as he reacted, letting go of it to shield himself. Discarding the pillow quickly, she held him down to keep him from turning on his side or trying to get away. "What were you and Claude talking about?"

_Oh, no._ He shouldn't have opened his eyes or moved like that; now she had a hand on each of his shoulders and was giving him that impossibly sweet look of hers and staring right at him. _Sorry, Claude._ "Uh…._Ahaha...haha-co-ahaha-congr-hahah-ongrat-aheheha–"_

"That's good enough. Thanks, Ashton." Claude better have a very good reason for telling him when she wasn't around, otherwise he going to be in the doghouse for a _very_ long time.

She'd forgive him once he told her, it had definitely been for a good cause. Besides, it wasn't as thought it wouldn't have come out during the ritual while he was babbling and trying to keep their friend's mind off what was happening to him. He looked up in time to see Bowman and Celine enter and found himself amazed by this whole situation, it looked like everybody that needed to be here for this was here. Hopefully Ashton had been reassured enough that he'd be able to handle the conversation they needed to have. If he wasn't then the pharmacist was going to be in trouble.

Ashton was too busy blinking up at the ceiling and trying to calm his breathing while ignoring the headache he had given himself to notice the additional presence of the pharmacist and the mage. He turned his head back to Claude as he nudged him with his shoulder and gave him a questioning look before cutting eyes his in the direction of the doorway. He almost wondered where Precis was when he saw Bowman and Celine studying them in front of Dias, but then he realized just what the blond had been asking him as he released the dragons from his mental hold and they helped him turn over to rest on his stomach. Shrugging lightly, he stared down at the covers below him and hoped that he was stable enough for the coming conversation; he didn't feel like having another dramatic mood swing. At least the nosebleed had plugged itself up, he didn't know how the rest of his visitors would react if they noticed it and Claude didn't need to be blamed for something that was his own fault.

He didn't seem too disconcerted by the notion of at least being present for the coming discussion, so Claude went ahead and fired the opening salvo. "We need to figure out when we're going to do this. I think we're almost done with half the clay at this point." He'd keep it brief, he doubted any of them felt the need to have a long, drawn out discussion about this.

Celine found herself blinking at the blond in disbelief. Really, it seemed as though neither she or Ashton were going to be allowed a chance to become stable for more than five minutes before they were sent spinning again. She realized that the others were experiencing something quite similar, but given the way the heraldic swordsman was looking and she was feeling at the moment it was much easier to sublimate and redirect her anxieties onto Claude. "I simply _cannot_ believe that you honestly think that this is something that should be discussed here."

"No, he's right. We need to sort this out." It was easy enough to tell what Celine was doing. Bowman supposed that he and Dias could restrain her if she started to really lose her temper. That or maybe they could walk her over to the bed and let her pet Ashton. That type of affection would either calm the two of them down or break them at this point, though. "The clay'll be done within five or six hours if we get back on it after our break's over and I don't know about any you, but I don't think I'll be able to sleep all that well until this is done."

Dias felt no need to contribute to the conversation, he was focused solely on Ashton as he watched for signs that he needed to start forcibly ejecting the others from the room. If Celine's agitation increased further he would start splitting his attention between the two of them, but for now he was content to let her vent her frustration with their current circumstances on Claude.

Rena had narrowed her eyes and frowned disapprovingly at the older woman's reaction, almost responding to it before remembering the stress that they were all under and that she'd be just as snippy if she was in her situation. She sat herself between the two men laying on the bed and rubbed their backs anxiously as Bowman gave his timeframe and worried at her lip. "And if we do wait until morning that means we're going to have to take shifts moistening the clay every hour. But...." Shaking her head at herself she looked to her fiancé as he met her eyes before turning her gaze to her other prisoner. The brunet below her was tense under her hand and probably didn't appreciate the contact that she was giving him at the moment, but he still turned his head to meet her gaze briefly after a long pause. "I think Ashton needs to get some sleep first. It can't be good for him to...do this without being rested, right? He needs to get some sleep." She might need to ask Bowman to make something for her to lessen some of her anxiety, she didn't feel calm or controlled enough to wait until she was called on at this point.

He had the same concerns. Rena should seriously consider moving herself and Claude to Linga to attend the University; she had the proper instincts and would make an excellent doctor with the right knowledge, training and guidance. "She's right. Have you been able to sleep at all since yesterday or the day before that?" It hadn't taken but an instant for Bowman to notice Ashton's grogginess once he joined in on his and Dias' conversation before the ship docked in Tenue.

"Um." He had been hoping that they'd do him a favor and tune him out for this conversation, but apparently that wasn't to be. "Not really. I think I got a couple hours on the boat and....I don't think I've ever really _slept _since we've been here." He'd lost consciousness, but there'd always been some part of him that was aware of Gyoro and Ururun in the same way as he was when he was awake. The awareness was still there when he slept, but it was different then, and he hadn't felt that at all.

"Right." Bowman rubbed the back of his neck as he went over the herbs he had bought in Tenue and which sleeping compounds he could make from them. "I'll make something. It'll hit you hard but it'll clear out of your system completely after a few hours and you'll be able to wake up clearheaded. I'll leave an extra dose for you in case you wake up before we're ready and want to go back to sleep." If he was too difficult to wake up they could have Rena detoxify him and then make Ururun breath on him again. He needed to finish his exam and insert the cannulas as well, but he could do that last bit of preparation after he woke up, he wanted to practice on Dias first and show him how to do the insertion so that he could insert his for him. Rena was going to find herself on call quite a bit later in the day. It was a good thing they had stocked up on teas and blackberries before they left town.

Claude was nodding along as Bowman spoke. The man on the other side of Rena definitely needed to get some more sleep before the ritual, it would help him process the events of the past day and a half and maybe even help him keep himself together during it. Celine seemed to be calming herself down now that Ashton was cooperating and keeping himself calm, so he ventured to question her directly. "How long do you think it will take for you to get his crests done?" Hopefully it wouldn't take but an hour or two at most, the blond wanted the brunet to get at least six or eight hours in if he could.

She had to force her mind from the situation they were in to tabulate the total time needed for his crests to be completed. Looking down, she studied her nails as she made her mental estimations and tried to distance herself. "Well, it takes roughly ten minutes for the ink to be mixed properly and for the outlines to penetrate fully. Once that's done it will probably take about three hours to do the sections that still need to be completed."

That was way too long. "If you had help would it make it go faster, or does it have to be someone magically inclined?" He looked over Rena's lap when he felt Ashton shift on the other side of her and found him staring at him with an incredulous, shocked expression. Claude shook his head and rolled his eyes at him before pointing to himself forcefully. Like he didn't know that he would have a stroke or something if the other person doing it wasn't him.

Celine almost smiled as she looked up from her hand at the question and caught their exchange and the aftermath; Ashton sighing loudly in relief and burying his face in the sheets as Rena gave him one of her looks and ruffled his hair while Claude shook his head at him again and brought his attention back to her. "It would cut the time by at least a third, perhaps even half if we can find a way to work comfortably on both sides." She was going to have to demonstrate for him to see if he could tolerate what needed to be done, but so long as he was able to keep his hands steady and stay within the lines there would be no problems that she could foresee.

"Well, then I–" he stopped short as Ashton said something muffled into the blanket below him. "What?"

"Um...I-I need t-t-tape a-and s-safety p-p-pins or s-something like th-that first." He ignored his hot face as he lifted it from the mattress to be heard and made brief eye contact with Dias, it didn't look like he'd get another chance to hand the letters off once Celine and Claude were ready. At least he wasn't making something up to get the two of them out of the room. He had been planning on laying on his side while Celine worked, but if Claude was going to be working on him as well then he would probably be standing. He still had the scissors in the desk, so he'd need to figure out how to make a layered skirt out of it while keeping the holes straight and secured enough that he would stay covered. At least this way he wouldn't be able to make his big confession while she was working on him, it would have been the most awkward conversation ever if he had. Or maybe not. It was Celine after all, who knows what would have happened. He needed to stop thinking again. That was another thing that he didn't need to worry about now, at least. He didn't know who to be thanking more at the moment, Claude and Tria were stuck in a dead heat.

"_Okay,_ _fine_. I'll go look for them while Celine gets ready." Now he wanted to know just what needed to be tattooed that it required so much preparation on Ashton's part _and _made him blush and stutter like that. Unless Celine had been handcuffing him to the bed or something to keep him from running away and he wanted to try to pick the locks or–Oh, hey. It looked like Bowman just had a similar thought judging by the way he was closing his eyes and shaking his head at himself. At least it wasn't just him this time. There might be something to that thought, though, Celine was looking a little uncomfortable now. Actually, the expression she wore was almost exactly the same as the one she had worn in Clik after....Oh, man. He better not have to tattoo Ashton's ass or have his head in his crotch, there were some lines that definitely didn't need to be crossed and that was one of them.

If they were going to finish Anchor's crests before they let him knock him out then he could finish his exam while they took care of the prep work. It should be over quickly enough, he was positive that he was clean and in excellent condition like the rest of them were once you excluded the problems that the dragons caused and it wasn't as if he was going to have him turn his head and cough or anything like that. Some tea might help all of them calm down, Rena could brew it and deliver it to them while he was getting his vitals. He would say that Dias would deliver it, but the blue-haired man still seemed to be playing at being Ashton's security guard, so he probably wouldn't be leaving. "I need to finish up with him real quick, so it'd be appreciated if everyone could clear out for a few minutes."

He wished that Bowman had forgotten about his physical, he didn't know how he had stood Rena touching him the way she had been and he still didn't want to have too much contact with anyone despite not feeling quite so raw and unbalanced thanks to Claude's reassurances. Shifting with the dragons to a sitting position, he tuned out the others as best he could as Celine, Claude and Rena made their way out of the room. It sounded as though Bowman and Rena had some sort of exchange about tea and he hoped that they weren't going to make him drink anything sweet, he had a feeling that it might make him sick after half an hour like the tea that he drank with Celine last night had despited the lemon juice he'd put in it. Maybe it had been the lemon and not the sweetness, he might as well be cautious and drink his straight if any was offered to him. Dias was staying to supervise apparently, so he cut his eyes back and forth from the taller swordsman to the desk that the pharmacist was standing at and subtly pointed as best he could to the lowest drawer by the door, which was where Ururun said they were and he trusted him enough to not second guess him. If Bowman took too long there might not be enough time to direct the other man orally or tell him what he wanted to. Dias wouldn't need to have his wishes explained to him after he saw the letters, but he had still wanted to talk to him as best he could before he left, he was the only person the he thought he might be able to talk to before being overwhelmed and he wanted to say a few things to him. He wouldn't read the letters beyond looking at the names written on their backs to determine whose was whose, so if he did make it he might just tell him to go on and read his if he didn't feel like talking afterwards.

Dias nodded subtly as he closed the door and Bowman turned back to his patient and motioned for him to sit in the chair by the desk, a blood pressure cuff in his other hand and a stethoscope hanging from around his neck. He'd try to hurry the pharmacist along and get him out quickly before he retrieved what he supposed might be letters to the various members of their group, it appeared that a stealthy retrieval would be impossible at the moment.

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Precis patted Bobot proudly as she carried him away from the ceremonial chamber and back towards the living quarters. He had done an amazing job and if she heard so much as one peep about that room not being perfect now she would scream or something, because seriously, Bobot was the best maid in the world. It was too bad there weren't competitions for stuff like that, they could totally take first place if there were. She'd get Celine to give the room an inspection. It'd be tough on her, yeah, but if she asked Rena then the other girl would start cleaning imaginary dust or something. Bowman would be a good choice too, but she didn't want to be around him unless she had to until Ashton was back on the mend, she was sure that he'd chill out a little after that and his ch'i was realigned or whatever. Besides, there was no way that Ashton and Urie and Gyoro weren't going to make it or something, it wasn't like they were going to let _that_ happen. That mantra might not have kicked the nightmares out last night but at least it kept her social and herself, everyone else was acting weird enough without her adding to it. Well, except Dias. He didn't count, though, Dias was just Dias like that and she still didn't get him at all.

She wondered if Urie had any moves that she could program Bobot with once he was all humany like she had with Ashton after she'd finally managed to get him away from that barrel in Fun City, it had been fun programming Bobot and watching him to figure out exactly what he was doing underneath all of those blurs and afterimages. He moved way too fast sometimes, she'd made him do that one move over and over like a dozen times and she still hadn't gotten it right, but whatever, Bobot's version of it was close enough. Maybe she should have bugged Bowman or Claude for that, but Claude just sliced his sword up and down over and over and there was no way she would ever ask the pharmacist for something like that. It had been totally wrong of the three of them, though, one minute Claude was slicing and dicing monsters left and right and then Ashton had started doing it and they'd go around sandwiching the big guys between them and totally ruining their day before she got to have any fun and the next thing she knew after that, _Bowman_ was doing it too. The whole 'boys club' mentality that they got in sometimes was really, really stupid though, so it was a good thing she had gone ahead and bashed her way in there before Dias, Ernest, Leon and maybe even Noel got in on it. Okay, maybe not Dias or Noel, but Ernest or Leon definitely would have joined in _somehow_ eventually if she hadn't gotten her cooties or whatever all over it.

Anyway, it was kitchen time. Rena had to be stress cooking at this point or something, otherwise the smells that were slowly slithering their way down the halls would have a burnt edge to them. It didn't sound like anyone was in there, but she wasn't the type to leave stuff cooking unattended, so Precis figured that she was just being quiet again. Rounding the corner and entering the room, she noticed Rena at the pantry and Celine sitting at the table with her back to the doorway and took in the various ingredients strung about the counters and the mugs that were lined by the sink. "Hey!"

"Hi," Rena returned absentmindedly as she shifted herself before the pantry and subtly pushed the box of cookies she had bought for Bowman and Dias behind a box of rice. Precis didn't need to know about those provisions, if she saw them she might get a craving for sweets and the healer wanted the blood donors to have first dibs on them before they became available to everyone else. She'd make apple, banana and chocolate crepes for breakfast tomorrow to make it up to her. It was a little unusual to have dessert for breakfast, but they'd have earned it at that point. "We decided to do the ritual tonight. Are you okay with that?"

"Really?" Precis blinked and looked to the ceiling for a second before looking back to the Nedian, she hadn't expected it to happen that quickly. It was better to go on and get it over with, though, so…."Yeah, totally. What time?" At least this way they'd know that Ashton and the dragons were okay one way or the other and if she had nightmares again she would know that her brain was lying to her. Rena was talking so the next target was going to be Celine, they'd both been way too quiet so far today. Well, everybody had, but she was tired of babbling to fill the awkward silence and had completely depleted herself in the storage room.

Celine caught the unsure noise that their resident healer made and looked up from the inks and her other supplies in time to catch her inquisitive look. Well, now. Apparently she'd been promoted in Claude's absence, she hoped the blond didn't mind the schedule she was about to set. "I would say somewhere around midnight. Ashton needs his rest and we all need some time to ourselves, I believe." She needed to sleep as well. She might just disappear on them again and take a nap in her room once she was done with the crests and take care of the clay for them while they rested.

She just had to pick the creepiest time of day, didn't she? Precis guessed it was the whole mage thing at work, Celine wasn't _dark_ or anything, but she definitely didn't seem to notice how some of that stuff could just get to people. The inventor envied her when it came to stuff like that sometimes, she just seemed unflappable and collected when everyone else was weirded out or confused and the only other people that Precis could think of that was like that was Dias and Noel and they didn't count so far as she was concerned. She had been acting really weird ever since this whole thing started, but Ashton had too, so it was probably just the crests and spending so much time around each other and rooming together all the time that did it. It still didn't explain the way that they'd been looking at and talking to and touching each other and the way everyone else had been acting around them lately. The only thing that Precis could explain it with was that they liked each other, but Ashton didn't really seem to be interested in that kind of relationship from what she could tell and she'd always seen Celine as a queen or the wife of some really rich dude for some reason, so she'd been pushing those thoughts out of her head when she had them. Anyway, standing in the entryway was stupid, so she went ahead and walked over to the table and sat down beside Celine as Rena nodded and closed the pantry before making her way over to the counter. "Are you going to do his crests again or something?" It looked like all the equipment was here, and Precis found herself hoping that Celine wasn't going to bring out those half dip pen, half flathead screwdriver-looking things in front of her again, they were way too sharp looking and the sight of them when the feeds were filled with ink really, really freaked her out.

Celine hummed lightly at the question as she mixed the inks in one of the inkwells, her expression going distant before she spoke. "That I am." It would be for the best if Claude returned from his scavenger hunt soon, the young man would be able to distract the inventor better than Rena would and she wasn't in the mood to satisfy Precis' curiosity at the moment, especially considering where her questions may lead.

She'd thought that they were all done considering that they were all the way down to his ankles now, but she guessed not. Maybe he had to have the soles of his feet done again. "You don't have to do his feet, do you?" That would be torture or something as far as she was concerned, even if he did already have them there, so she hoped it was somewhere else.

"Precis, could you come here and take care of the tea for me?" That was a little too personal in Rena's opinion. She was confident that while Celine would answer the question if forced to, it would still make her uncomfortable and Ashton doubly so if yet another woman were to know about it. It was bad enough for him that she knew exactly which areas had yet to be done, he had been blushing so fiercely when she healed him after the last few sessions that she'd almost thought that he had painted his face red before she'd entered the room. Not that knowing or seeing him stripped to his boxers made her uncomfortable, but just seeing him like that while the tattoos were still so fresh and raw looking made her sick to her stomach, especially when she knew that he had to stand the pain of leaving them untreated for half an hour before her heraldry could heal him without damaging the crests. He said it was better than putting the salve on, though, and they had all agreed that Bowman didn't need to be subjected to that again even if Gyoro now realized that the pain hadn't been intentional.

Precis got up and walked over to the stove, noting that the kettle didn't seem ready yet, but guessing that the other girl was thirsty and wanted it ready soon. "Yeah, okay." Rena must be making fried vegetables, there were lots of them on the counter and she was making some really loud chopping noises. It was a little odd for her to be doing so now as she'd been quiet about it until she said that, but maybe she'd moved on to one of the harder vegetables. She might be planning on dividing it up and using it for a side dish, there was a chicken on the counter. "The crests?" It was still too quiet in here.

While Celine appreciated Rena's efforts, she wasn't surprised in the least when the inventor stayed on her chosen topic. She resisted the urge to sigh as Rena chopped whatever she was working on forcefully a few times, apparently sharing her frustrations. "I'm going to be going over it with Claude once he's done with what he's doing. You're free to stay and listen in, of course."

Well, that hadn't worked. Precis guessed that the mage had a point, it wouldn't be something that she'd want to talk about over and over again either. She searched her mind for a new topic that might get them talking and eventually came up with something that might work. "How's all the wedding stuff and the house going? I haven't really heard anything about it lately." So far as she knew it was still a secret topic.

Now that was a subject that the two women were willing to engage in, if in a more subdued manner than they normally would. It was a relief to speak on something removed from the situation again, the ritual and the preparation for it had been the main topics of conversation since arriving in El. It kept them distracted until Claude made his appearance, Rena stopping mid-sentence to deliver the chicken to the table for Celine to demonstrate on. She didn't know if she would still use it; it wasn't toxic, but even if the skin and meat around and underneath the markings that were going to be implanted were removed she didn't know if she'd feel comfortable eating it herself, let alone serving it. Dias might have to go without his chicken skewers.

Claude sat down hesitantly and watched Celine ready herself, dimly wishing for a distraction before remembering the safety pins in his pocket and shoving his right hand in it to fiddle with them. He needed to ask Precis about making a wheelchair for Ashton, so that would serve as another distraction. "Hey, how much do you have left in the material kit? It's not empty yet, is it?"

Lifting the kettle as it finally began to whistle, Precis moved over beside Rena and started filling the mugs. It looked like they already had the teabags in them. "Uh, I think most of it's still there. It didn't take all that much to fix Bobot up for the wagon or make the cart." That was kinda sudden. Maybe she had another project on the way.

He had an idea, that much was obvious. Rena turned to look at him, hoping that he was going to ask Celine if they could use one of the more advanced types of tattooing implements he'd told her about if Precis could make it.

Claude had already asked her that, unfortunately. She'd asked the village elder, and his conclusion had been that as it was untested he wouldn't recommend it. Still, she listened in as she set the inkwell on the table. Claude needed to see exactly what it was that would be expected of him before he made his final decision on this. She would demonstrate on Ashton as well, but it would be much more disturbing and he needed to prepare himself for the sight and the actual experience of driving the ink in. She prayed that she was never made the elder of Mars, she would hate to do this on a regular basis.

"Well, I was wondering if you could make a wheelchair for Ashton to get around in. I think he'll be weak for a day or two afterwards and his balance'll probably be off again." He'd hate it, yeah, but he might need one and at least he'd be able to push himself around to go to the bathroom and anything else he wanted to do instead of calling on one of them to help him. The last thing they needed was him getting irritable or martyring himself because he got hung up on being dependent on them to get around for a couple days.

Rena blinked at that and made a skeptical noise. "I don't know, wouldn't something like a cane or a pair of crutches be better? I don't think he'll be that bad and we could ask Bowman if it would be okay to move him to his room, it's the closest to the bathroom, after all." The heraldic swordsman would probably do everything he could to avoid using it and might even get offended by the idea. Celine seemed to have the same opinion, she was shaking her head as she busied herself by positioning the chicken so that it sat on its hindquarters and making sure that it was stable.

Precis looked between the three of them before speaking. Rena had preempted her, but she was still going to answer. "I can do all that and have plenty left over if I modify one of the chairs around here," she answered quickly, an idea coming to her as she spoke. "I might be able to make a stretcher or something too, unless we're just going to carry him all the way to whatever room he's in." She'd have to destroy a bed to do it, but she figured that them being here was technically illegal, so they might as well vandalize the place a little while they were at it. Besides, it wasn't like she was going to be sleeping until the ritual was over.

Well, Precis didn't seem to think his idea was all that terrible and had definitely come up with a good one of her own. Thanks to her it was a tie, so at least the other two women wouldn't tag team him. "Sounds good to me. I know the wheelchair's a little extreme, but I'd rather be prepared on the off chance that he needs one." They'd never had to deal with major blood loss before since they'd always made sure to be stocked up and Rena was so watchful that nobody had ever lost enough to keep them out of the fray for more than a day.

Celine cleared her throat and brought the blond's attention back to her. Bowman would likely be done soon and Claude needed to deliver his supplies to Ashton's room before they began. "Are you ready, darling?"

He scratched the back of his head nervously and scooted his chair closer to the mage, nodding as he did so. It was a good thing she was going to demonstrate on the poultry, he'd been in front of the two of them the last time he saw the crests being put in and it had been disturbing enough just watching the handle of the instrument move, their reactions to it and the cloths that Celine had used to remove the excess ink and blood slowly becoming so stained and saturated that they had started to drip before she threw them away.

"We're going to be working on the sides of his hips and upper thighs, so our position is going to be a little unusual now that we'll both be working on him." It was best to get that information out of the way to satisfy Precis' curiosity and make plain just how intimate his contact with the other man would be. The face the inventor had made at that news registered faintly from the corner of her eye, but she was more interested in the blond's expression as it turned uncomfortable for a few seconds.

Well, that explained the tape and the safety pins. That type of contact was far beyond what normally went on between the two of them unless one of them had been injured in those areas and they had to stanch the wound before Rena could heal it, but it wouldn't be that bad once they got used to it. "Right." He nodded and leaned forward, his arms crossing on the table to support his weight as he studied the chicken and Celine removed herself from her chair and kneeled down before it to demonstrate.

They might need to take regular breaks as their hands were going to be positioned rather oddly for this now that Ashton would likely be standing for the procedure. Celine worked her wrist briefly to loosen it before settling the edge of the implement to the skin of the chicken's wing; it wasn't the best spot for it but she'd rather not waste the entire thing and it would still serve to give him an impression of the type of pressure he would need to exert to drive the ink in. "Now, then. Enough pressure needs to be exerted to scrape off the epidermis and roughly half of the dermis below it. The skin in the areas we'll be working in is a bit variable, so we'll have to adjust the strength of our stroke as we go. I'll go first as we move to demonstrate." He was looking a little worried at this point, Celine would hazard to guess that he was worried about driving the ink into the wrong layers of skin or scraping too far down. "It's easy enough to tell when you're down far enough, the tissue itself is white and you'll occasionally hit a capillary. The important thing is to go in slowly at a severely acute angle and take off a little at a time before dipping the pen in the ink and inserting it in the skin." She began her demonstration at that, steadying it with one hand and scraping the skin off the back of its wing slowly. The chicken was the best that Rena had been able to come up with, but it was still a poor substitute for human flesh.

Precis made a brief disgusted noise before she moved over and bent down behind the mage to watch her demonstration. The tea was almost done steeping and she'd be volunteering herself to deliver it to the others, wherever they were. Ashton would be easy enough to find, but they wouldn't be able fix his tea for him like they could the others as he tended prepare his to suit whatever frame of mind he was in. It was a little weird, but it was an easy way to tell whether he was in a good mood or not since he didn't like anything sweet when he was depressed or stressed out and he almost put as much honey in his as she did when he was really happy. She retreated to the tea and started to prepare it for distribution among those gathered here as Celine finished her demonstration and motioned for Claude to practice. This was going to be long, long day.

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Dias wasn't Ashton's keeper despite his recent behavior, so when Precis came by and delivered their tea to them and the Elurian didn't move to prepare his own cup he made no comment on it. She had left the tray on the desk for them, the lemon slices and honey making rather odd companions out of a pile of safety pins and a roll of tape. He sipped at his own as Bowman prepared his distractedly and talked his patient through the catheter insertion process and just what they were planning. The pharmacist wasn't making any moves to insert them, even as he brought one out to demonstrate where they would be placed, laying it against the interior of his elbow and explaining that it would be splinted and heavily padded as he didn't want it to be irritated by the grooves of the armrests. The swordsman would be ejecting the Lingan from the room soon if he didn't remove himself of his own accord, Ashton was becoming increasingly distant as the man spoke despite his apparent focus on the man's words and actions.

He'd be quizzing Celine or Claude on whether he had drank his tea by the time they were done with his crests, the other brunet needed to stay hydrated and he would already be sending Rena in with a pitcher of water and maybe even waking him up early to force a few glasses down his throat if he came to check on him and didn't see it depleted to his liking. His patient still needed to talk to someone about this so far as Bowman was concerned, but he knew that the other brunet wouldn't open up to him and that his security force was becoming impatient with his lingering presence. It was better for Ashton to know their plans for this, though, so he threw the large-bore peripheral cannula in the trash as he'd removed it from its sterile wrapping for his demonstration. He was thankful that he had raided the supply closets in the university's medical labs, he had seven more of them and almost a dozen smaller ones which would be used to deliver the saline solution still tucked safely inside his bag. His patient was going to have several new holes in his body once he was done with him; Bowman had decided to use the medicarpal veins on the back of his hands to administer the saline solution and the cephalic veins in the curve of his elbows for the transfusions. He'd have to see if Rena's magics would force the cannulas out of their position or even drive them out completely, he didn't think they would once inserted properly but he didn't know what they would do if they did. Leaning back, he poked his tongue in the inside of his cheek and pulled himself from his thoughts as he cast about for the proper way to introduce his next topic. "How much of last night do you remember?"

It was better for him to be as removed as he could be for this, the pharmacist's explanations were hammering the reality of the situation even further into his mind and the only other options were to become angry like he had with Claude or start crying and wailing again. Gyoro and Ururun were helping him at least, their undeserved punishment both accepted and forgotten now, their reassurances whispering through him whenever he thought about it. Like many things, they didn't comprehend his reasons for it fully but they did realize that he was emotionally unstable and that it was affecting his behavior and judgement. Still, he almost wished that one of them would consent to taking him over or that he could do whatever it was that he had done last night in the ceremony room, it would make this whole thing easier for him but it had apparently been a one time performance. He leaned back and wrapped his arms about his midsection, trying to keep his discomfort from registering on his face. "Ah, all of it. Why?"

Bowman noted the defensive body language and strained to hear whether Dias had begun shifting from his position by the door as he spoke. He needed to leave soon, but this was something that the other man needed to know about ahead of time so that he could come to terms with it. "Well, it's not just going to be him, Rena and me in there with you. I know you probably don't want all of us watching, but Precis is going to need to help me out with the transfusions and Claude and Celine want to stay as well. She's going to be in front of you the whole time and Claude's going to get down there too once he helps me get back up once I'm done getting you ready." The knowledge he'd just provided made the other brunet exhale forcefully and rub at his face as he looked away, his dislike of the situation evident. Not that Bowman had even entertained the notion that he would be pleased with the information, but his reaction was fairly mild considering the alternatives. "Celine's going to strip a couple beds and bring their blankets with her for those two, so you don't need to worry about anyone seeing you like that." He shared a look at the dragons as they blinked at him and then looked down to their host before nodding their understanding of the situation at him and Bowman wondered if they truly comprehended the reason for the blankets; the demons seemed incapable of understanding certain social mores and customs from what he had gathered.

That was a relief. Claude might be used to the sight and Celine had gotten an eyeful of her own thanks to Gyoro, but that didn't mean that Rena or Precis needed to see everything. He wasn't comfortable with Bowman or Dias witnessing that either as they'd never seen him completely undressed before but he supposed that it didn't matter at this point. It would have been different if the situation wasn't what it was, but it was, so it couldn't be helped. "Okay. What about me? Do I need to cut up a pair of pants?" He hoped that he would be wearing pants, he'd feel too vulnerable and uncomfortable if he was just going to be sitting there in his underwear. It was bad enough that Rena had seen him stripped down to them as many times as she had over the past few days.

Bowman shook his head at that, standing up straight and gathering his supplies. He didn't need to be escorted out by Dias and Ashton needed to get ready for Celine and Claude. "Naw. I think you'll be good enough just rolling your pant legs up past your knee." The sleeping pants he had on now would work, they were loose enough that they would roll that far up without cutting off his circulation or causing discomfort. "I'll go over the rest with you later. Is there anything else you want to ask?" He'd almost said 'talk about,' but that implied that he was seeking to counsel him and would get him kicked out even as he made to leave.

"No. Thank you, though." He looked up at the man at that to make eye contact with him as he spoke, hoping as he did so that Bowman understood the meaning of that as he couldn't get out everything he wanted to thank him for at the moment. They were going to do everything they could to make sure he didn't die, though, so maybe he'd be able to personally thank him and apologize for the rather long list of things that had accumulated over the past week and a half after it was over. The pharmacist was carrying the heaviest burden of all thanks to him even though they weren't that close. He didn't know how he'd ever repay any of them for everything they'd done for him, he had a feeling that he'd be spending the rest of his life trying to pay them back.

The pharmacist nodded and patted his patient on the shoulder briefly before he lifted his bag from the desk and collected his tea. He'd received the message well enough, and if Ashton hadn't been in the state he was in he would have responded to it more directly. "S'okay. I'll give the pills I'm going to make to Rena so that you'll be able to get some sleep. There's going to be four of them, but only take two at a time." The last thing that they needed at the moment was for him to take all four of them and overdose. Ashton would already be taking the maximum recommended dosage, but the medicine was gentle enough that he wouldn't harm himself by doing so and the pharmacist wanted to be sure that whatever sleep he managed to get was deep and prolonged enough for him to be well rested. He probably wouldn't be conscious for long if he didn't pass out during the ritual, so he'd be able to make up the rest of it while he recovered.

Dias watched as Bowman made his exit before looking back to the heraldic swordsman and observing him as he removed a notebook from the drawer he had indicated earlier. He seemed to becoming slightly more tense as he flipped through it, apparently steeling himself for whatever he was about to say. It looked as though he might have to wait for the wake, funeral or even Claude and Rena's wedding to deliver a few of them if Ashton didn't make it, he had counted eleven letters of varying page length folded throughout the still attached pages and he didn't know if he was willing to call Ernest and Opera to inform them of their existence provided they weren't able to make it before then. Coming forward slightly as the sitting man looked back up at him, Dias shut the door to insure their privacy for this conversation, however brief it may be.

"Um, I wasn't able to get any envelopes, so don't bother with it if you don't want to." He wished he could manage a smile if only to let Dias know how much he appreciated the thoughtfulness of his actions, but all he found himself capable of was nodding at him in acknowledgement. "There's not really any order to them, so you might need to go through it to find them, but they've got names on the backs." He was going to start rambling if he kept holding the notebook, so he held it out for the taller man to take and tried to keep his gaze steady as he watched him.

Taking the proffered item, Dias nodded and decided to breach a subject that while uncomfortable, was necessary at this point. "Is there any family we need to notify?" He was fairly certain that there wasn't. The bridge before Eluria Tower was now preceded by two long walls of black granite, carved and inlaid in silver with the names of those that had fallen or gone missing in the defense of the country during the invasion of the Ten Wise Men and their demons. He had almost passed it by unthinkingly until the other man's surname caught his eye and he took in the number of Anchors that had apparently perished during that time.

Ashton had been avoiding Eluria due to that monument, he'd visited the capital once and that had been enough. He'd only stayed long enough to have an audience with the newly coronated Queen and inform her that while he had returned to his homeland to help with the rebuilding efforts, he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to serve his country like the rest of his family had. It was a good thing that he was possessed, if it wasn't for Gyoro and Ururun she might have tried to coerce or even force him to enter the military since he'd technically completed his formal training. Being a fully recognized Crest Knight had never been something that he truly desired, though. He'd mostly done it due to tradition and so that he could say that his family had _something_ to be proud of him for as he'd always considered himself something of a stain on their House due to his awkwardness, bad luck and outcast status among his peers despite their protests and support. "No, they're all…on the monument and the Queen said that I was the only one whose body hadn't been…." It was obvious where he was going with that, so he didn't bother to finish that thought. At least it didn't hurt as much as it used to, by the time he'd heard of the chaos the Sorcery Globe had created passage to El had been all but forbidden in both Cross and Lacour and he hadn't been able to persuade either of the Kings to let him return. He'd been able to hold out hope for a while, but he'd accepted the fact that all of his acquaintances, family, instructors and peers were gone before they'd even boarded the ship with Leon and the Lacour Hope and set sail.

There wasn't anything to say to that, so Dias busied himself by hiding the notebook underneath his shirt as the shorter man stood slowly. "Is there anything else?" He was assuming that there was, the brunet wasn't moving from his new position and had adopted a generally nervous air as he stood before him.

Even discounting the fact that he was one of his blood donors it was still a good thing that Dias was here, it meant that he could tell _somebody_ what he wanted to even if it wasn't all of it or as eloquent or in depth as it was in the letters. "I just, um….I want to thank you for everything." If he said it more than once or started in on the litany of things he was grateful to him for it would irritate the taller man so it was in his best interest to move on. "...I'm glad I met you and that we traveled together like we did. I know I try your patience sometimes, but you've never really judged me for anything and...I respect you. I look up to you, to tell the truth. And…I might need some time to adjust with these two off me, but if I make it, I….I'd like to spar with you sometime." If the ritual didn't kill him then Dias might; he was leagues ahead of him when it came to skill and talent so far as the brunet was concerned. He didn't expect him to say anything to that as the other man simply wasn't the type to speak of things of such a nature. He showed it through his actions and he'd already done that by being here and running interference for him ever since he started to crack last night. Being a friend of Dias' was an interesting experience, the man pushed where most people pulled and tended to become aggressive, cold and distant when someone became close enough that he started to worry about their wellbeing. Ashton would guess that he'd go back to making threats interlaced with hidden meanings against him at odd times once all of this was over. Assuming he survived, anyway.

Ashton was correct in his assumptions, he'd been far too kind to him as of late and would need to remind the Elurian of just how things worked between them once he was on the mend. Dias supposed that he would warm him up for it by outright ignoring his presence for a day or two before he began to redraw their old lines. The only person that didn't receive such treatment was Rena, and that was due to their bond being formed long before he had cut himself off from everyone else. "And you always surprise me." He wasn't sure how that had slipped out even as nodded his head in recognition of the brunet's admission and the acceptance of his challenge, but it was the truth. If Dias were to give one word to describe the shorter swordsman it would be 'surprising' or 'unpredictable' as he had never been able to accurately analyze him or predict his behavior to the degree that he could with most people.

That almost made him smile through his shock as he blinked it out of his system and Dias used his stunned state to his advantage to leave the room, shutting the door behind him as he went. It would probably be for the best if he never spoke about what had just happened to him or anyone else for however long he had to live, Dias would flay him alive if he ever heard it mentioned. Thinking about it wasn't a good idea either, so he turned his attention back to the desk and removed the scissors before lifting his tea from the tray and taking a drink before setting it aside and moving to the bed. Knowing his luck Celine and Claude were already on their way and he hadn't even started on the sheet yet. If he didn't hurry they might walk in on him while he was getting ready and the last thing he needed was either of them offering to help him with it, the crest branding was going to be awkward enough.

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Claude did the best he could to ignore the soft hiss Ashton let out as he dug the sharp edge of the instrument he was holding down the inside of the outline and traced it slowly to the finished crests that it would join with before running it up the other side to finish the outline. Glancing to the other side of the brunet, he saw Celine putting her utensils away and restrained himself from asking if she would finish the last section that he was working on. He could handle doing this for a few more minutes, especially considering that she had done the same thing so many times for hours on end already. Turning his attention back to the crest he was completing, he blotted at the small drops of crimson the welled up from the cuts he had just created, finding himself praying again that he hadn't cut too deeply. Returning the cloth to the top of the desk beside Ashton's hand, he laid his left hand against the other man's back and adjusted his grip, the edge of the blade almost horizontal to the skin of his thigh as he scraped downwards slowly and methodically, watching then natural color slowly give way to white and continuing on until the furrow he had created was level with the crests that he had already placed. Retrieving the cloth again, he dabbed at blood that beaded up from the capillaries that had been damaged by the blade and dipped the instrument in the inkwell by his side. "Last one." He swallowed as Ashton nodded tightly above him and removed the cloth, replacing it with the inked tip and running it down the exposed flesh, watching the already pink skin around it become increasingly inflamed and the muscles beneath it twitch as the ink penetrated. Sighing forcefully, he resisted the urge to throw the tattooing blade across the room as he finished and dabbed the excess ink and newly risen blood from the now completed crest before sitting fully on the ground and running a hand over his face. "Done." This had been the most exhausting hour and a half of his life, he felt like he could sleep for the rest of today and tomorrow as well. He needed to get out of here.

Celine got on all fours at that and leaned over to inspect the blond's work, pleased to see that he had done an admirable job of not only placing the crests, but working through his distress as well. "It looks splendid, darling. Thank you ever so much for your help." She adjusted herself so that she was sitting to his side and patted his knee in consolation as Ashton inhaled deeply and straightened himself from his leaning position before the desk. Claude needed to leave the room soon, it was all too obvious just how disturbing the crest branding had been for him. It was still disturbing for her as well, but she had become quite talented at hiding how deeply it affected her. From most of the others at least, Ashton was far too sensitive to her moods and it was useless to try to hide it from him. The mage needed to leave soon as well, the heraldic swordsman might push himself through his own pain to comfort her as he normally did despite his current state and given the circumstances she was frightened as to where it would lead. "Could you tell Rena that we're finished? I'll pack all the supplies back up." It would leave her alone with Ashton, but she couldn't give Claude the support that he needed at the moment and neither could his best friend, Rena was the only one that was capable of that now.

Ashton rolled his neck and shoulders to work the tightness out of them and looked down to Claude and Celine, instantly regretting it. He always felt horrible before, during and after the crest branding due to what it did to the periwinkle-haired mage, but now that he was looking at the blond the trauma that he had willingly subjected himself to was all too evident and it only served to increase his guilt. He was the worst person on Expel. He had to be, there was no way there was another person on the planet that came anywhere close to hurting the people that they loved and that loved them in return like he did. "Claude, I…." His left hand flew to his face to rub at his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose as he cursed himself internally and Gyoro and Ururun began to flood him with soothing emotions again. He shouldn't have said that, he shouldn't have even attempted to speak; his voice had broken on the blond's name and the tears had decided to come with it and he didn't know if he'd be able to stop even with the two of them sitting beside him and the dragons flooding him.

He better not be getting ready to do what Claude thought he was getting ready to do, if Ashton started then he would too and Celine might follow or go get Rena. Either way they'd wind up with at least three people crying all over each other, maybe four if Celine didn't leave and his fiancée stumbled on the three of them or the mage broke down once she brought Rena back. "Hey, it's okay. I'm just a little worn out." The brunet wasn't sniffling or anything yet, but he was still forcing the tip of his thumb and the side of his index finger into his eyes. "Don't _do this_, okay? You don't want to ruin your _skirt_ or anything, do you?" Please let that joke work, even if it did suck.

Celine bent her head as far back as she could to prevent tears from sliding down her face, wincing internally at the joke before the brunet standing before them let out a strangled laugh at the blond's attempt at humor. Her waterworks suppression tactic failed even as the laughter became more natural and continued, Claude joining in as she bent her head down to wipe them from the sides of her face as subtly as she could and shook her head at the two of them. She joined in as well, still shaking her head but this time at herself as she removed her hands and studied the smeared tears found there. "Bowman's right, the two of you are absolutely terrible when you're together."

Ashton made a dismissive noise and sighed once he finally wound down and removed his hand from his face, the dragons still flooding him in an attempt to keep him stable. He couldn't come up with anything to say to that at the moment, but Claude wouldn't let something like that fly even on his worst days.

"Whatever," he giggled, "he's just jealous that he's never known_ true love_ like we do." Claude looked up to the brunet, the smile he found there and the silent laughter that shook the other man's body egging him on and increasing his own. His voice became increasing high pitched as he continued, his throat tightening as he suppressed his laughter to be understood. "_He wants our bromance so bad, but we won't give him any._" If they were going to cry it could be from laughter, at least.

That made absolutely no sense. She did have to wonder about the two of them sometimes, she suspected that if polygamy was legal the blond would have proposed to the brunet by now. "You're mad." Smiling through the words, she looked up at the heraldic swordsman to let him know that he was included in that. "Completely insane."

The brunet shook his head at the crest mage, hoping to distance himself from the blond's insanity as he wound down and looked at her. He had no idea what a _'bromance'_ was, but apparently he was involved in one and didn't even know it. Claude's vocabulary threw him for a loop at times, but he guessed it was to be expected what with him being from a different planet and all. It was a good thing he had learned to speak their language before he lost his communicator or whatever he had called it in Eluria Tower after being transported back from the _Calnus_, otherwise he might have even more communication issues with people. "Don't include me in that, I didn't do anything." Thank Tria for Celine, Claude, Gyoro and Ururun, between the four of them they'd backed him away from the ledge he'd been standing on. Of course, now he found himself on a completely different one. He hoped Claude didn't leave the two of them alone, her smile was slowly morphing into _that one_ as he looked at her for some reason and he was still unstable enough that he might react to it.

It took a few seconds for Claude to realize that Ashton wasn't laughing anymore, but when he did he look up he found him in a staring contest with the mage beside him. Okay, he'd missed something somewhere and turned into a third wheel somehow. He had no idea how it had happened, but he knew well enough what _that _type of eye contact meant. He decided that a quiet retreat was his best option, so he stood as silently as he could, winking and smiling at the other man as his movements drew his attention and he looked over at him quickly. Claude decided to ignore the expression on Ashton's face as he realized that he was indeed leaving the room to give them their privacy, turning and making his escape and being sure to shut the door behind him. If the smile that he'd caught on the mage's face meant what he thought it did then the brunet might go through this not only being kissed, but also no longer a virgin. He'd have to hold Rena off until he got wind that the mage was out of the room, she didn't need to be walking in on anything.

Claude's imagination was running as wildly as Bowman's did, there was no way that would be happening while the dragons were still present even if they did their best to stay as unobtrusive as they were able. They would undoubtably do _something_ eventually to draw the mage's attention away from their host and ruin the mood for her if not him as well. Celine hadn't caught the desperate, pleading look that the brunet had sent the blond or seen his end of the exchange as she'd looked away once he'd done so, choosing to focus her gaze on the inks, spent cloths and tattooing utensils strung about the floor, but she had detected his nervousness. She prayed that he wasn't going to do or say anything, if something happened now she didn't know if she'd be able to handle watching the ritual unfold.

He wished he could walk or turn easily at the moment, but thanks to the crests his hips and thighs were so tight and sore that a similar retreat was virtually impossible. He needed to do something, though, so he turned around as best he could and lifted himself into a sitting position on the desk behind him. At least he was sitting now even if his nerves were screaming at him in retaliation for the movement and the dragons were sending it back at him out of instinct, the flood of emotions ceasing in its wake. "Um." It was a good thing he'd made the skirt as long as it was, the mage sitting below him wouldn't be able to see anything if she ever raised her eyes from the floor to look at him. His vantage point gave him a larger variety of things to focus himself on, so he searched the room for something to distract himself with and decided to study the mosaic on the far left side of the room as she gathered her supplies and placed them back in their container. "At least that's over with." The crest branding, that is. Claude really shouldn't have winked and smiled at him like he had, now he was blushing again.

She was going to enjoy destroying the tattooing supplies, her next destination would be the public entrance to the temple so that she could vent her frustrations on them in peace. It was a pity that so much of it was metal and glass as she would dearly love to see them burn, but the wind was rather strong at such a high elevation, so she supposed that beating and throwing them against the mountain would suffice. Celine nodded and hummed lightly in agreement, not knowing what to say or if she should say anything at all. Knowing Claude he would do his best to keep Rena from the room and Ashton needed his rest, he didn't need to be kept waiting and time had slowed to a crawl for her suddenly so she might not be able to give the Nedian an accurate guess as to how much time had elapsed if she stayed here for long. Her packing completed, she stood slowly and found herself unable to move as her gaze settled on him again. What could possibly be said or done at the moment that wouldn't make this harder than it already was? Nothing. No matter where this went it would be bad for both of them, they were both exhausted, drained, fearful and on edge and there wasn't any way to pretend or forget anymore. She wished it hadn't happened like this, that they had found a way to remove the dragons in a less dangerous manner or hadn't bothered with it at all, that he had returned to them under different circumstances. Even if she hadn't been able to work past the dragons eventually at the very least whatever passed between them would have been easier to deal with than this, would have been less stressful and void of competing fearful urgency and hesitancy.

The weight of her gaze forced his eyes back to her and he cut himself off from the dragons, not understanding why he did so even as he did it. Her eyes hadn't had a chance to stop swimming yet and neither had his despite the levity of the situation they had been in only minutes ago. He lost the battle with his need to blink after long seconds passed and didn't bother to wipe them away as they traveled, he had barely noticed it as his mouth worked silently until he tasted the salt of them as they fell to the curve of his mouth. "Celine, I–"

"Don't." She didn't know why she said that when she was already closing the space between them to hug him as best he could over his closed legs and started shedding her own tears once she touched him and buried her face as best she could against him. "I know." It had been obvious enough from the way his lips had moved, they had formed so many disjointed words as he searched for his voice that she knew that he was either going to confess or apologize again and she didn't think that she could handle either of those two options at the moment.

He shook his head at both himself and her, unable speak at all as his throat tightened and he moved his legs apart to increase their contact. It was a good thing that he had situated himself on the desk the way he had, it meant that he could bury his face in her hair as his arms closed around her to bring her forward. He didn't know why he needed this now when he had spent so much of the past two days avoiding such contact and fighting the urge to run whenever someone touched him, but he did and was relieved finally have it again.

Neither of them knew or understood anything at the moment, apparently. Celine certainly wouldn't have been able to explain either to herself or anyone else why she ducked her head out from underneath his and craned her head to kiss his cheek after long moments passed, tasting the tears to be found there as he brought her closer, one of his hands running slowly up her back. She repeated her actions as he returned the affection, blinking her eyes open in surprise and exhaling as his lips slid across her own cheek, his breath unsteady before he kissed her chastely and unsure and she closed her eyes in response.

Gyoro shook his head forcefully, opening and closing his mouth rapidly to dislodge the foreign sensation as it traveled to him and his other as Ururun blinked repeatedly and cocked his head consideringly. They could not ask their host for confirmation as he had shut himself away from them again, but that didn't stop the two of them from debating whether these actions meant that the two humans' courtship had been completed. Either way, they were both curious enough at this point that they curled themselves around their host's side to observe the happenings before them at a better angle, doing their best to stay out of the way.

Ashton wasn't paying attention to them at the moment, he was still too caught up what was happening for them or that part of himself that was stunned that he had managed to do what he'd just done to register. The dragons were bouncing the sensations back at him again, he knew that much because there was no way this could be as intense as it felt as she responded. It overloaded him enough that he drew back to gasp for breath as she followed him, taking the lead and kissing him again and that faint part of him that was still capable of thinking was relieved that she hadn't deepened it; this experience was proving to be overwhelming as it was.

Celine pulled away from him suddenly to press her face to his neck, unable to ignore the demons as they drew closer in curiosity and their breaths registered against her skin, alternately too hot and cold to be human. The stares she could have ignored, but that had been far beyond what she could stand and she restrained herself from pulling away from him to glare at them for intruding by hugging him to her as tightly as she could and focusing on the feel of him pressed against her and the hands on the small of her back and the nape of her neck. She hadn't moved her own hands for fear of touching the dragons, but now she was rubbing at his back in short stokes in silent apology.

He shook his head at the dragons, almost thankful to them for the way they had interrupted them before he buried his face in her hair again. At least the sensations were still intermingled with the pain of the crests, it kept his body from responding to what had just happened even if it seemed to be taking just as much time as his mind was to process everything. She hadn't moved away from him and he _was_ thankful for that, the pressure of her body and the hands traveling over his back was keeping him grounded. "I'm sorry." It was all that he could think to say now, there were so many things he needed to apologize for that he didn't even know where to begin anymore.

Removing one of her hands from his back to wipe the tears from her face, she drew back enough to shake her head at him before letting it fall to the arm that encircled her back. "Don't be silly." The dragons were retreating to their normal positions and looking away from the two of them in an obviously deliberate manner, and she decided that the first thing she was going to do when they were in their new forms was smack them upside the head for everything that they'd done since this had started. She came forward again to hug him as he removed the arm that she wasn't holding in place to rub at his own before he wrapped it around her again and sighed heavily.

He'd been tired all day, but with how draining recent events had been and her body pressed against him he was finally feeling like he could get some actual sleep. It was too bad that he had to wait for Rena to heal him and Celine would have to help him to the bed or be stuck here holding him up, otherwise he might have given in. She looked as worn out as he probably did at this point, it wasn't fair for him to keep her here if it meant that she could get some rest of her own. "You...you don't have to stay. You look tired."

That was the pot calling the kettle black. Still, as much as Celine didn't want to now, she did need to inform Rena that the crests were done, Claude certainly wouldn't be doing it. Besides, she still had a bit of aggression to work out on the tattooing supplies and she couldn't do that here. She did her best to smile at him as she pulled away, her hands coming up to frame his face as his settled at her waist. "You best take care of yourself, I'd hate to have to wake you up and force you to eat whatever Rena's cooked up."

He had a feeling that he would've had to do that anyway, Rena seemed worried enough that she might hover over him to make sure that he did exactly that before she let him take the sleeping compound that Bowman was making. "I'll try." She seemed pleased enough with that as she hugged him and kissed his cheek again before separating herself and hesitantly collecting the cresting equipment and making her way out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. Ashton sighed and rubbed at his face once she was gone, still trying to wrap his mind around what had just happened and refusing to open himself to the demons on his back again.

It was mostly because they'd ask too many questions.

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Author's Notes: The metric system isn't that big in the U.S. and I'm not sure how common avoirdupois (pounds, ounces) is in other English speaking countries, so here's the _rough_ math for Ashton's weight just on the off chance that someone is confused or curious as I never came out and stated it. Metric: Ashton+Dragons= 93 kg (Ashton= 79.4 kg, Dragons= 6.8 kg each) Avoirdupois: A+Ds= 205 lbs. (A=175 lbs., Ds= 15 lbs. each) I figured I'd keep his weight consistent with the old game guide that I have, but I thought that unless the dragons had no true physical forms they had to weigh _something_ and I'm too much of a realist to say that they would have no physical effects on him; hence the back issues, weight and muscle gain. These calculations would place him at 145 lbs. or 65.8 kg when he first joined the party if his total weight was 175 lbs., by the way. I considered ignoring the guide stats altogether, but I got fed up with all the calculations I was doing and figured it was acceptable enough given his odd situation and stopped fussing over it. In other words: I think too much.

**EXTRA SPECIAL PRE NEXT UPDATE ANNOUNCEMENT: **I grew up watching operation shows like they were Saturday morning cartoon marathons, have done a shit load of research and my stepdad was a combat medic for the army and an ER nurse before he retired. In other words, the ritual and the preparation for it is going to be _graphic and as true to life as possible_. **_IF BLOOD, THE EFFECTS OF RAPID BLOOD LOSS ON THE BODY AND MIND AND/OR MEDICAL PROCEDURES FREAK YOU THE FUCK OUT DO NOT READ ANYTHING IN THE NEXT CHAPTER THAT IS ITALICIZED AND PRECEDED BY THIS: _~****~ **Seriously folks, you're getting fair warning here, I've even bolded the damn thing. The chapter in question will be posted with the text preceding this as well as a precaution as it might take a week or two for me to complete writing out the ritual itself given the subject matter and I don't need anyone forgetting this little warning.


	10. Chapter 9

Summary: More lead up to ritual. Because I suuuck.

Author's Note: Yeah, I lied. The ritual isn't in this chapter as between this, the last minute prep and the ritual itself the chapter in question would have been over 40,000 words, which seriously breaks the self-imposed 22,000 word limit I put on myself after Chapter 4 was posted. I'm just posting this so that anyone wondering why it took an entire month for me to update this, thought I had abandoned it or started to lose interest would see that it's still going. The actual medical stuff and ritual will be posted within a few days or a week at the latest as I'm still finishing up and working the kinks out of it.

Warnings: None really. Bowman goes on about medical stuff again and consequences of severe blood loss are mentioned.

Disclaimer: Square-Enix owns it, I'm making no money from it, and I hate writing this over and over again. Does anyone else think that disclaimers are the worst part of posting stuff online or is that just me?

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Dias' modification of the straps, while practical and effective, had forced Bowman to revise his plans and not in a good way. Getting situated in the chair with the restraints loosely looped through their fastenings had proven somewhat difficult for the pharmacist even without locking his arms to simulate the splints he had been planning on putting over Ashton's elbows. Dias was most likely correct in his assumption that his patient would have far less difficulty than he had, but it still gave him enough pause that he didn't want to insert his cannulas and set up the catheters until the younger brunet was already sitting in the chair.

He flipped through the anatomy textbook that he had brought with him, looking for the interior diagrams that would match up with the crest patterns that were now to be found on Ashton's body and fighting the urge to scratch at his freshly inserted cannula and flee the ceremonial chamber. Arriving at the deep view section of the forearm, he studied it before turning to the illustrations of the crests themselves found within the ritual book and frowned at it before turning back to the textbook, turning to the section dedicated to the calf and ankle and scowling. It was a good thing that Rena's powers could heal tendon, muscle and nerve damage, otherwise Anchors might have been crippled for years or even the rest of his life. Maybe ancient Elurians had expected demons to learn humanity by acting as their former host's nurses and caretakers; even if the incisions were done perfectly there was still a high chance of hitting one of the tendons or nerves that the arteries in question were adjacent to. This was going to be bad, he had been hoping that his memory was off but he _would_ be cutting into the lower third of Ashton's ulnar arteries and even worse, the posterior tibial arteries. The ulnar arteries would be easy enough as they rose from their deep position to rest near the surface in the areas he would be cutting, but the tibial arteries in the upper half of the incision area were still protected by just enough tissue that he would have to put a good deal of force behind the blade as he cut. He was torn between bad two choices now, either he could go slowly and make the incisions with the tip of the knife, or he could do it quickly and push the entire edge of the blade into the flesh that covered the arteries he needed to hit. Going in slowly might decrease his chances of hitting a nerve and thus causing unnecessary damage and pain, but too much blood would be lost in the process and given the way the platform and grooves were angled and carved Ashton might not have time to finish his recitation of the incantation, and if he went the other way and did it quickly he might be in so much pain thanks to the dragons and the feedback they sent that he probably wouldn't be lucid or even conscious. To make matters worse any painkillers he could give him to mute those sensations would be so strong that the other brunet most likely wouldn't be coherent enough to parrot back what Celine told him to say once they took effect.

Yawning, he tossed the anatomy textbook in the direction of his medical supply bag and slid himself off the platform, ignoring the thud of its landing as it reverberated and made his way out of the room. He didn't know where Dias had run off to as the man had left shortly after they finished inserting the catheters and Rena healed him, but given the current situation he doubted that he would be secluding himself somewhere too far out of the way or engaging in any strenuous activity that could irritate the cannula or pull at or kink the IV line that was stitched in the side his shirt and looped loosely around his waist; he'd already warned him against that. Celine might be napping again, so he needed to check to see if Rena, Precis or Claude had woken her yet and that aforementioned trio was most likely in the kitchen unless they had decided to wake Ashton up. Bowman hoped that they hadn't, the medicine that he'd given Rena to keep her calm wouldn't be kicking in fully for another ten or so minutes and he and Claude had already dragged her out of his room once today. He heard her voice drifting from the kitchen as he approached it on his way to Celine's room and looked inside as he passed quietly, noting that everyone but the mage and his patient were present and gathered about the table. He might as well join in on the discussion for a few minutes to see how their leaders were going to be approaching this, it was already eleven o'clock. "Where's Celine?" They might have to brew and pour some coffee down her throat to wake her up if she was napping again, no matter how much she hated the stuff.

Bowman should have at least made some noise first or waited for a break in the conversation, if Dias wasn't Dias and he hadn't been facing the entrance from where he was sitting the two of them would have jumped as much Rena and Precis had when he said that. "She said she was going to the bathroom. What time is it?" Not that Celine had directed that information at him, she'd been doing everything she could to avoid looking at or speaking directly to him ever since she'd popped into the kitchen earlier in the day to tell Rena that Ashton's crests were done. She was probably pissed at him for leaving the two of them alone together like he had, there was no way Ashton had told her about their little talk on the boat even if he had been out of it from fright, lack of sleep and pain. He better remember to play dumb and act surprised when he and Rena asked him to be the best man otherwise the blond would be in hot water with both of them.

The pharmacist wasn't going to even check the blond's watch for that, he'd looked at it recently enough and had a good enough sense of time that his estimate would be close if not right on the mark. "About five after eleven." He'd stay by the doorway if that was the case, he'd be able to hear her coming and get a good look at her when she rounded the corner if he was quick enough. It looked like Rena wasn't the only one that needed something to take the edge off, Claude was visibly tense and Precis was fidgeting more than normal. He should have made several more doses of the compound he'd made for Rena earlier and given it to them, it was too late for him to make more now.

She needed to stop fiddling with her hairpin and put it back in her hair, she was going to break the clasp if she wasn't careful. "Someone needs to wake Ashton while the rest of us start moving the clay. How long will it take for you to get him ready?" It probably wasn't a good idea to hold off on this for long even if Rena still wanted to avoid it as much as she could despite the medicine Bowman had given her. She was most likely going to be sitting at the far edge of the platform and staring at the wall to keep herself from healing Ashton prematurely, the healer didn't trust herself enough to even look at him while the ritual took place no matter how far she was from him. Well, she wasn't sure that she'd be able to trust herself then, either; she didn't need to make physical contact or be visually focused on a person to heal them, all she really needed was to know where they were and she had no doubts that she would be well aware of exactly where he was.

"Not long. I'll wake him up and let him move around for a while before I start setting him up, so depending on how long that takes about thirty or forty minutes at the maximum." He needed to see if his patient had bothered to drink the rest of the water as well, it seemed to have been drained a bit the last time he had checked in on him, but that had been hours ago. Anchors needed as much of it in his system as possible, Bowman had only brought three bags of saline solution and he'd taken enough out of one of them when he had flushed and filled the lines he had placed in himself and Dias to prevent any air bubbles getting into Ashton's system and giving him an air embolism. Of course he could throw the water up, but he was going to be dehydrated enough afterwards from the sudden blood loss and his body releasing as much fluid as it could from his muscles and organs to make up for it, so whatever was left in his stomach after that would still be welcome. Bowman almost wished he had stolen a feeding tube even if he had never inserted one before, whatever trauma he caused while placing it would have been far outweighed by the benefits of being able to pour broth or sugar water down his throat at their leisure. The pharmacist wasn't concerned about the other man losing control of his bladder before he regained consciousness, even with Rena's magics at work his body would still probably register the trauma it had suffered and drastically reduce urine production for hours afterwards.

At least this meant that they'd all be doing something again, she'd been going crazy trying to distract herself with Bobot since she finished making all the stuff for Ashton. "Do I need to go get the cart? Y'know, for the clay?" Unless Bowman was going to get it for them, Precis was pretty sure it was still in Ashton's room. Him or Dias might have moved it back during their break now that she thought about it, she knew that both of them had been up the whole time like her because she'd heard them moving around and talking and they'd helped her tear apart the bed she'd gathered raw materials from for the stretcher.

Bowman shook his head as he leaned out the entryway, the faint sound of footsteps growing louder as Celine finally rounded the corner. His ex must've had a rough time while she was hiding out from them; the mage's hair and clothing was mussed and she looked drained and scattered as she rubbed at her face distractedly before looking up and noticing him, that stony, blank expression she adopted when she was trying to distance herself from people falling into place near instantaneously. The pharmacist knew better than to say anything or send any inquiring looks before he turned back to the others, glancing at Dias before turning his attention back to Precis. "I put it in the library after I checked on Ashton. Just carry it in there by hand, putting it on the cart'll probably contaminate it. Dias'll do the weighing as you go, he doesn't need to be moving around too much until I unhook him." It was probably in his best interest to get out of Celine's way, so he stepped fully into the kitchen and to the side to let her pass as she approached.

/////

It was a little unusual for the dragons to not instantly awaken at his presence, which led the pharmacist to believe that demons were just as affected by the sleeping compound as their host was. He kept back to stay out of Gyoro's range as Rena purged their bodies of any lingering traces of it and watched as she petted the dragons awake, their host mumbling sleepily beneath them but still holding fast to unconsciousness. Things like this were what perked the pharmacist's curiosity, especially now that the three of them were mentally intertwined the way they were. Bowman would have thought that having what amounted to having two of your appendages moving independently on their own _and _having additional minds thinking at you at the same time would make sleeping impossible, but Ashton, Gyoro and Ururun had been proving that and other assumptions wrong ever since he'd begun traveling with them. It was especially strange when it was the other way around; if the dragons wore themselves out enough the day before they could sleep for hours while pulled over their host's front, Ashton walking, talking, eating, drinking and even moving them around to get dressed without the two of them waking.

Rena was going to tickle him soon if he didn't start waking up. She'd try talking to him first even though it only worked occasionally, Ashton could hold a conversation very well while he was asleep for some reason although some of his responses could be incredibly silly and out of left field depending on how deeply he was sleeping. It took a few repetitions of his name for him to respond coherently, referring to her by name and asking if it was morning already which just proved that he wasn't awake despite the clearness of his voice. "Ashton, do you remember what day Claude's birthday is?" She was going to try to questioning him first, his response would give her an idea of just how deeply he was sleeping at the moment and if she should just start tickling him.

"It's this month on the twenty...twenty-third."

He wasn't very far down at all going by the way his brows had furrowed and the thought he had given the answer, so she might not have to tickle him after all. If he had been he probably would have given his astrological sign instead and started going on how much he hated astrology and that Claude didn't really strike him as an Aquarius, they'd had that conversation before. He was such a Libra sometimes, it was no wonder they got along so well. "Well–"

"I don't know what to get him, it's only a few weeks away and I can't think of anything."

The anxious tone made Rena smile lightly as she reached past Gyoro to pat his host's hair. Thank Tria the compound the pharmacist had given her had finally kicked in all the way, she was able to ignore that little voice in the back of her head that was wondering if they would even be able to celebrate Claude's birthday if Ashton didn't make it through tonight. "It's okay, we'll think of something. You could get him a typewriter or one of those personal computers that the Lacour Laboratory came out with a year ago, he's been writing science fiction novels and there are pens and stacks of paper all over the mayor's house." That had been one of her gift ideas, but she had other ones to fall back on so she wasn't too worried about giving him one of hers. She'd have to call the teenage Fellpool and make very clear that he wasn't allowed to give that to his _'big brother'_ for his birthday. She'd go outside the temple to do it, Leon had calmed down tremendously ever since he had joined them but his ego still took over on occasion and a screaming match wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

Ashton made a disgruntled noise to go with the expression he was wearing and attempted to shift onto his side. "He's not still writing those space odysseys, is he? I told him that was cheati–" Something was in his way and–Gyoro and Ururun. He didn't know why he always forgot about them when he was waking up. Why was he shut off from them? The last thing he remembered–Oh. Oh Tria, he really had done that. Now he wanted to run and hide again, but it looked like Bowman was blocking the escape route and Rena was still touching him. At least his pillow was here, he could hide the blush that was starting to form as that revelation registered fully. He wished Claude hadn't left them alone like that, now Celine was probably angry at him for being an idiot again. Maybe the demons had done something and he was wrong, his memories of the past two days were rather vague and scattered and it was so far away that it could have been a dream, but knowing his luck that was just a combination of waking up and the sleep deprivation at work and he really had…done that. _Crap._

It was a good thing the other brunet had worked himself up enough to wake up, Bowman had nearly joined in on their conversation if only to try to startle him to consciousness. Ashton better stay awake now, he wasn't as talented as Dias or Noel was at it but he could still turn over and go back to sleep with the best of them. To be fair the pharmacist could as well when the mood struck him, but he was already awake so he didn't count at the moment. "Feeling any better?"

He nodded into the pillow as he felt Rena shift to lay down beside him and hugged him as best she could considering their positions. She was feeling tense and he hoped that she wasn't going to cry, she'd come close enough to that the last time he'd seen her. It wouldn't be right to ignore her, though, so he wound the arm closest to her over her back and rubbed it as soothingly as he could. He was okay. Embarrassed as all get out, but there was nothing unusual about that. It was a good thing Bowman had drugged him like he had, he didn't know if it had been the sleep or the medicine itself but he didn't feel like he was shattering to pieces and falling apart anymore, he almost felt...stable and himself again. Of course the_ 'feeling like himself'_ part might just be from fighting his blush down, but he'd figure that out once he looked up again. Might as well do it, his face wasn't feeling hot or even warm anymore. " Yeah, thanks. What time is it?"

"A little past eleven." Bowman made his way over to the bed, ignoring Gyoro and Ururun as he approached and checked the pitcher of water on the nightstand. It looked like either Ashton or the dragons had managed to drink a few more ounces of it when they'd taken the last dose, but he'd rather see it empty so he poured a glass for the other brunet and held it out to him. He seemed to be focused on Rena at the moment, but that wasn't too surprising given how emotionally trying this was and the way the first four members of their group tended to prop one another up at times.

If Ashton looked as bad now as he had when she'd seen him last time she might have come close, but he was acting like himself again and even smiling slightly as he tried to reassure her, so Rena returned his expression and reached up to collect the glass from Bowman and handed it off to him, giving him a playfully commanding look as she did so. She'd like to give all the credit to Bowman's compound, but the hour she and Claude had spent crying together had probably helped more than she wanted to admit. "Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Rena would need to scout it and the halls first before he left the room, if Celine was hiding in there again and they bumped into each other the results might not be in their favor if how tightly wound the mage seemed to be was any indication. They needed to corner her before the ritual if there was any time for it, maybe if she talked to them she could let some of that tension and fear out like they already had. Ashton needed the same treatment as well, but they had waited too long and he needed to stay as calm as he could now. She'd just hug on him as much as she could until it was time, physical affection tended to be as good as talking when he wasn't too tense or emotional to stand it.

The Nedian was more on the mark then she realized with that theory. It was too bad she'd needed to cook lunch earlier, if she had supervised the crest branding a certain thing that he was doing his best not to think about could have been avoided. They might have wound up in an orgy of tears but that would have been better than what _had _happened in his opinion. He still couldn't believe he had _done that._ Ashton almost wanted to ask Ururun to breath on the water even though it might crack the glass, it was room temperature at this point and had a slightly odd taste to it once it stood for hours like it had that he couldn't identify. He supposed it was from contact with the crests and the magics they gave off or maybe the pipes. He nodded his head as he drained the glass slowly, he had a feeling that Bowman was going to try to get him to drink as much as he could given the way he'd watched him when he hadn't moved to fix or drink his tea during their consultation earlier. He needed to brush his teeth to; between the water, the aftertaste of the medicine and the time he'd spent sleeping he didn't want to be talking or exhaling through his mouth too much when he close to people.

Bowman accepted the glass as Ashton passed it back to him and refilled it as Rena hugged him again and announced that she'd be back in a few minutes before leaving the room. Setting the glass beside the pitcher, the pharmacist studied the other brunet as he and the dragons shifted to a sitting position before him. His patient seemed to be have calmed himself a great deal and the pharmacist found himself hoping that he wasn't going to destabilize him by bringing the ritual and their preparations for it up, but Ashton needed to be aware of their current predicament. "I need your opinion on something." Well, two thing really, but it was probably better to start slow.

"Oh?" That wasn't good. He wondered what was wrong, Bowman wouldn't be asking for his input like this unless he wasn't comfortable with whatever alternatives he'd already come up with.

"Dias set the straps up so that we can secure them quickly, but there's a bit of a problem." It was best to just get to the point, if he prolonged this for too long or hemmed and hawed too much Anchors might start to become unhinged again. "I was going to put your catheters in before we got to ceremony room, but the way it's set up now I don't think I'd be comfortable setting them up the way I want to until you're in the chair." He'd let Ashton decide this one, hopefully if he felt in control of _something_ it would make the real problem easier for him to deal with.

He needed to move now. It was a good thing he needed to brush his teeth, it meant that he could get up and grab his traveling bag to hunt for his toothbrush and toothpaste while he spoke. He didn't need to be looking at Bowman at the moment. "I don't want to be in that thing for longer than I have to. What is it? Is it the splints you mentioned earlier? Do I really even need them?"

Bowman didn't blame him for that, he'd been in the damned thing twice already pretending to be him and even then the first time had been more than enough. "They're going to be on the inside of your elbows and the back of your hands and I'm not comfortable with them being pulled or moved somehow even with the bandages over them and the splints keeping them steady." Besides, the only thing he had to make them from were wooden tongue depressors so they would already break easily enough. "If I don't do the splints you'll need to be very careful with how you move until they're taken out, the catheters could irritate the inside of the veins I'm going to be using or move if enough force is applied."

He could do that. "Right, I won't bend my elbows unless I can't help it and then I'll be slow with it." _Where'd my toothbrush go?_

"Sounds good." He waited few long seconds, letting that sink in before he introduced the real conundrum. "The other thing is how I'm going to make the incisions. Your forearms aren't a problem, but the bottom of your calves are. We can either go slowly or quickly, either way could cause problems."

Oh, good. So that first one had just been a warm up. He had a feeling that he didn't _want_ to know what _'problems'_ the pharmacist was referring to, but something told him that he needed to know. "What problems?" It was too bad the toothbrush hadn't fallen further down the bag, he didn't have any distractions now.

The feeling was mutual, Bowman would have preferred it if Ashton hadn't looked back at him when he asked that. "If I go slow there might not be enough time for you to get the incantation out and if I go fast and hit a nerve you could be incoherent or passed out from pain."

And there was the problem. It was too bad he'd already be in the straps by the sound of it, if he could do it himself he would have been able to hold at least some of it back from Gyoro and Ururun. "Give me a minute." He needed to let them back in enough that he could talk to them, see if they could figure something out. _D-do you two think you can handle not sending it back at me? _He blinked down at the floor as he thought that, the demons' relief and worry flooding him as they reconnected and nearly halting his own thoughts in the process.

_...We do not know. Is it truly such an intense sensation? We have not been injured in such a manner before._

_Let's assume he knows what he's talking about, Ururun. _It really bothered him when the demons started saying 'we' or referring to him as an 'other' as if he was a part of them and not even attempting to hide or correct it. Gyoro was thinking as well, but his thoughts were too complex or primitive or alien or something for him to unravel all the way unless he focused all of his attention on it or the dragon slowed and started breaking down what he was thinking so that he could understand it easily. _Gyoro, stop it._

_Hnn. What if he lies?_

_Why would he do that?_ He shook his head at the dragon both physically and mentally. Gyoro was going to have to get over his intense dislike of Bowman one day, at least Ururun was just indifferent to him most of the time. _He's a friend, he's trying to help._

Bowman raised an eyebrow at Gyoro as he glared at him for a second before turning his attention back to his host and a flurry of motion ensued from the demon and his brother. It almost looked like a tennis match was taking place over the man's head as the dragons darted and ducked about above him, alternately looking to each other and their host. Apparently he was missing a lively conversation. Ashton must have the wackiest inner monologue on the planet.

_We can try._

_We may not succeed._

_If we were to hold the sensation–_

_As best as we are able–_

–_until he is done cutting–_

–_we may be able to send it a final time–_

–_if you have already been disoriented from the pain–_

–_and bring you back to yourself._

It was always trouble for him when the dragons were on the same wavelength like this. Ashton held back his own thoughts as he listened to them volley theirs back and forth, waiting for the next shoe to drop. He was fairly certain that he knew what it would be, but he wanted to hear one of them think it before he started protesting.

_Or we could take you over and shield you from it the best we are able._

_**No.**__ Gyoro, we don't know how this works. You can't take me over, we don't know what'll happen if our minds are that close together when the spell kicks in. One of you could wind up in control of my body for the rest of our lives while I get thrown into one of the golems and then you two won't be able to go back to normal. _That and he really didn't like the idea of either of them having full control over his body for the rest of his life. Tria only knew the places it would end up if Gyoro was the one that inhabited it. It was bad enough he'd be walking around in a facsimile of it, but he preferred to keep the original relatively…clean and unsullied. He had a feeling that if he ever let Gyoro wander around unsupervised for any real amount of time he wouldn't want to ask what he'd done for the day or week or month or however long it was before he saw him again; something about the red dragon gave him the impression that he wouldn't want to know.

_What would Gyoro do? How would it get dirty?_

_I don't know, something. I really don't want to think about it._

_I would not._

_Yes, you wou–this isn't important right now, okay? Neither of you are taking me over so don't even think about it anymore. What if you two knock me out when you send it back? It takes hours for me to wake up again after that and I don't want to put everyone through this again. If we separate ourselves as much as we can, do you think that would work? Can you even do that? Separate yourselves from me?_

_...We have not attempted such a thing before. _Ururun didn't like this idea, he rather enjoyed the intimacy that the changes in their possession of Ashton had created between them despite the dangers that he and his other suspected awaited their host in the future should their possession not be nullified or altered in some manner.

He was well aware of that, the dragons were codependent by nature and the deepening of their mental link had just increased those inclinations and dragged him even further into the middle of it.

_We are not 'codependent.' _Gyoro didn't know exactly what that meant but he had gleaned enough of an understanding of the word from his host's mind as he thought it to be offended by the idea.

_Okay, then prove it. _The complete lack of any mental movement away from his psyche in the wake of his challenge didn't surprise Ashton in the slightest. He shook his head and snorted derisively at that, not even concerned about Bowman or the rudeness of the gesture. The demons needed to be goaded into action somehow and they were prideful enough that such an open display of disdain–especially one that _Bowman_ of all people was aware of–would work wonders.

The pharmacist was starting to think that being attached to the demons had given Anchors multiple personalities, there was no way in the world he would ever have done that in front of another person when they'd travelled together two years ago. Gyoro and Ururun had stopped their display and were _'standing'_ stock-still, their emotions hard to read due to their lack of pupils, expression and body language before they shuddered suddenly and shook their heads, Ururun whining discontentedly before falling silent as his brother growled. At least it wasn't directed at him this time. Bowman almost wanted to feel sorry for the two of them, they almost looked as dazed as they had the first time the crests had been put in. Ashton seemed fine, though, even if he was blinking and scratching the back of his head thoughtfully as though he was considering some foreign concept that had just come to him. "Everything sorted out?" The three of them blew his mind sometimes, he swore they did.

"Ah, yeah." This was almost like when he separated himself from the two of them, but it was much more intense now that they were putting effort into it as well. He'd forgotten what it was like for his mind to be this quiet, to be this alone. With only his own mental presence, sensations, thoughts, emotions and memories inhabiting his mind he almost felt...mentally deaf and physically numb. In a good way. That didn't make sense and it was a terrible thing to think, but it was true somehow. He needed to snap out of this and test whether this would work or not. Hopefully Rena wouldn't be angry at the pharmacist when she found out. "Can you hit me or something? I need to see if what we're doing will work."

Anchors was trying to get him killed, apparently. Maybe Gyoro had taken him over without any noticeable changes this time and were looking to create an excuse to attack him. "Come again?" The pharmacist was going to let him rethink that for a second, see if the possible implications would register this time.

"I'm serious, if this doesn't work I don't know what we'll do." He better not chicken out on him. This was too important for that and the only other thing he could think of would be for him to get one of his swords and run himself through with it or maybe get Precis to hit him with Bobot or her mechanical punching arm. Bowman was their resident hand to hand combat specialist, he'd know where and how to hit him to maximize pain and lessen any damage at the same time.

Bowman shook his head at the taller brunet as he walked across the room to shut the door. He had no idea how he and the dragons worked but apparently Ashton wasn't too sure at the moment either. If Rena, Claude and Celine killed him for this he was going to haunt the younger man for the rest of his life. "Fine, I'm not going to hit you, though. Hold your left arm out and take a deep breath when I say 'now.'" If this worked he might have found a way to numb some of the pain that the knife would cause his patient, now that he thought about it. If he hit the nerve quickly enough with just the right amount of pressure it could numb that entire side his forearm long enough for him to make the incisions, though he probably wouldn't be able do something similar to his calves. He and Anchors were geniuses and didn't even know it. Walking back over to stand before Ashton, Bowman held his forearm in his right hand and placed his thumb over the dual line of crests that traced his ulnar artery before holding his elbow tightly with his left hand to keep him from pulling away. "Say 'when' once you've had enough. I'm going to try something after that, it might numb the entire side of your arm and I'm going to need you tell me how long it stays that way and when you start getting sensation back. Ready?"

He'd been hoping that he would hear _'now'_ mixed in with all of that, but apparently the pharmacist thought that whatever he was getting ready to do would be painful enough to warrant two preambles. Gyoro better not snap at the pharmacist this time, he was getting fair warning and he wouldn't be able to hold him back with one hand. "Ready."

"Now." The pharmacist waited for the man before him to inhale deeply before he pressed his thumb into the flesh of the forearm he held, watching as Ashton's face contorted in pain and tried to tear his arm away from his grasp out of instinct. It looked like he'd hit the ulnar nerve just right. Increasing the pressure he was applying slowly, Bowman watched as the other brunet leaned down and to the side as best he could, forcefully exhaling with the movement and making a strangled noise deep in this throat. All the feedback he got from the demons all the time must have increased his pain tolerance somehow, most people would be crying or screaming at this point.

Ashton would dearly love to say 'now' at the moment, but he was waiting for Gyoro and Ururun to start sending some of this pain back at him. The pharmacist must be increasing the pressure he was putting on whatever it was he was hitting, he couldn't even think anymore. He wished he could stomp his foot or something, but the only movement he seemed capable of managing was confined to his diaphragm and vocal cords as he whimpered and gasped for air. This was the worst idea this he'd ever had, including that thing he'd done earlier in the day even if it didn't really count because he hadn't been thinking when he'd done it.

This was ridiculous; if the dragons were going to hit him with anything they would've done it by now. Bowman was certain at this point that this little experiment of their was edging increasingly over the line to full-out torture by the second, so he relaxed his thumb before pressing it in again swiftly and harshly, drawing cry of pain from the possessed man before him even as he released his grip on his forearm completely and watched the arm in question fall limply to his side. "Can you feel anything now?" Ashton better stand back up soon, if Rena came back before he collected himself he'd be on her bad side again.

At least it didn't hurt anymore, it just felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his funny bone; the far side of his arm didn't hurt anymore but it sure was tingling like crazy. "Nn…no-not really. It's just...r-really tingly." It would probably be a good idea if he stood back up, at the very least he'd be able to breathe better.

That was also known as _'feeling something.'_ Still, Bowman wondered if anything else would register at the moment. "Let me see it again." He almost returned the look Gyoro was sending him, but settled for shaking his head at him instead. As if he was going to hurt their host again. Well, technically he would be hurting him nearly a dozen times by the time this was done, but it was necessary so the demon needed to get over it. Taking the proffered arm in his hands again, he pinched the tip of Ashton's pinky finger and studied his expression as he moved his way down his finger towards his palm. "Can you feel this?"

Ashton blinked down at his arm as the pharmacist continued pinching him. "No, I–"

"Why was the door shut?" Please don't tell her Ashton had started crying after she left, Rena had been hoping that he was feeling better now. Wait, why was Bowman _pinching_ him like that? "What are you doing?"

It looked like he'd timed that just right. His patient's face was still flushed slightly, but at least it was at the level that it could theoretically be a blush again. "Checking to see how numb it is. Do you think you could stand it if I hit your nerves like this before I cut you, or do you not want to deal with that?"

Ashton nodded to Rena as she came over to hover beside them and held onto the arm the pharmacist wasn't experimenting on. "Um, are you sure it'll do the same thing again?" His hand was boring apparently, Bowman had decided to move on to his forearm and was pinching the crests found there. "I can feel it now, it's more pressure than anything, though."

He shook his head in answer to the question. There wasn't a guarantee that the nerve would react the same way especially after being given such rough treatment, but if this was how Ashton's brain interpreted the signals it was sending it still indicated to them what they could expect later. "It could change on us but it gives us an idea. I probably won't be able to do the same thing to your legs, though, so the big question still stands. I'm going to do your arms first as the blood has more distance to travel from them so I'm not going to rush those unless you want me to, but the artery I'm hitting in your legs have a few things in the way and if I go slowly there might not be enough time like I said before."

He wished that Bowman wasn't leaving this to him, it wasn't something he could really control. It wasn't as though the pharmacist could put on a demonstration for him and show him exactly how he was planning on doing it without cutting him. "Do it….Do it quick. All of them, I don't care how much it hurts anymore. If they can't send it back to me when we're like this, then...it doesn't matter._ I just want this over with._"

She should have stayed in the hallway a bit longer or checked on the others, Ashton wasn't becoming unstable yet but there was something in his voice that was almost desperate by the time he was finished speaking. He needed more hugs as far as Rena was concerned, so she dropped his arm and hugged his side as best she could without getting in Bowman's way, feeling relieved when he didn't tense up, try to move away or start squirming. It wasn't too bad yet, if she kept hugging him he'd calm down.

He was smacking the other brunet upside the head with the situation and had been every time he'd seen him today, so he supposed he knew what had caused that tone of voice. The pharmacist continued his pinching until Ashton flinched slightly, his nerves apparently recovering enough to transmit pain correctly again. Nodding to himself, Bowman patted Ashton on the shoulder once he released his forearm and the other man shook it out. If he was going to insert the cannulas he would need to get his supplies from the ceremonial chamber. He'd be slow about it, Rena might be able to get Ashton to talk without breaking down herself if he left them alone long enough. "I'll be back in about ten or fifteen minutes, I need to get my stuff and find something that you can bite down on while I make the incisions." A roll of gauze would do the trick, luckily for them he had plenty of that left over since he'd only bandaged the crests once. He didn't bother making eye contact or trying to nudge Rena in some other way as he left the room, she was looking concerned enough that she would do her best to help him without his prodding.

At least it was Rena he'd been left alone with this time, he wasn't used to being undressed in front of her like he was around Celine or Claude but the other swordsman and the mage came with certain thoughts that he'd rather not think at the moment. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and started walking them over to the bed, feeling the need to lay down again. Rena was safe; he didn't need to worry about anything around her, it was like being with a sister at this point despite how long it'd been since they'd seen each other. He didn't know how Claude could look at her like that, the Nedian was just too..._something_ for those type of thoughts to form in Ashton's opinion.

That wasn't fair at all, she would've tickled him if she'd heard that. She was the same age he'd been when they'd first met now and she'd been seventeen when they had, so it wasn't as though he had the same excuse Dias did. He was the little sibling in this relationship, anyway. Still, laying down until he calmed himself wasn't a bad idea and she could pet Gyoro and Ururun better this way as well, the dragons were looking a little lost for some reason. "What happened?" He could take that and run with it however he wanted to, Rena was certain that it would go somewhere eventually.

She was petting Ururun as she settled beside him, so he knew well enough what that was supposed to be referring to on the surface at least, but he didn't want to talk about the demon and his brother at the moment. Then again, he didn't know what he could talk about, everything led to either the ritual or Celine at this point and neither of those topics were safe. "I don't know." She took the lead along with Claude when it came to planning and everything else, steering their conversation shouldn't be that difficult for her.

Or he could refuse to even catch it. She couldn't bring up what Ururun had told them about their reasons for doing this or anything that would give him the idea that the demon might have tattled on him in Mars, so she hummed lightly and fell back to study him as he reached over for the glass on the nightstand and took a drink of water. "I had to ask Bowman to make something to keep me calm while everything happens, maybe he could make something for you too." He should have volunteered something, now she was going to guilt him into talking about this. Ashton didn't get angry at women the same way he did men so there wasn't any need for her to tiptoe around this like Claude had to about certain things, the worst he would do is get testy or push her away from him and run from the room if she drove him past the limits of his tolerance or temper.

"You…" He had to stare at her for a few long seconds as the fact that she'd drugged herself to stay calm enough to wait to heal him registered, instantly feeling like an ass again. "I didn't mean to do that to you."

"You didn't do anything to me, the ritual did." He better not start blaming himself, she'd tickle him until he started hiccuping if he did. She reached out and ruffled his hair, giving him a warning look as she did so. Silly Ashton. He needed to put his headband on, his hair was in his face again. The ruffling had nothing to do with it, nope.

He shook his head to get his hair to fall back in place as he set the glass back on the nightstand, realizing as he did so that he had fallen into her trap. He was going to have to talk about this apparently, Rena wouldn't let up now that they were on the subject's doorstep. The bed really was the best place to have these conversations, pillows were in easy reach and he could hide his face in them at a moment's notice. "I don't know how I feel about this anymore. I was scared for so long and then I broke apart and now I'm just…." There weren't any words he could really describe it with, he was still terrified but it was intermingled with so many other emotions that even it was difficult to single out.

Rena reached over to hug him as best she could when he hid his face in the pillow, rubbing at his back and waiting to see if he would start crying like Claude told her he almost had after they'd finished his crests. She'd start too if he did but maybe that was what he needed, to just cry and have someone there to understand it and share the experience. There wasn't much any of them could do at this point, telling him that everything would be okay might be true in the end but it was also a lie even if everything _did_ go well and he was fine afterwards because nothing about this situation was _'okay'_ no matter how much they pretended it was. They were getting ready for Bowman to cut him so he could bleed out on two big piles of clay for several minutes and recite a spell and that was supposed transfer Gyoro and Ururun's souls off him and into golem bodies that were identical to their host's and somehow later transform them back to their real demonic form if they learned _'humanity,'_ however the spell defined that. Nothing about this made one bit of sense.

At the very least he had one reason to be thankful for what had happened earlier in the day; whatever dam had broken inside him then allowed him to touch and be touched and that was definitely coming in handy at the moment. He was doing his best to avoid crying again, she might join him and it was enough that she was here. Besides, he was sure he'd made her cry enough already the same way he had Celine and Claude as well even if he had done his best to hide it from him, the same way he had until they had arrived at the temple and he'd lost control of himself. Hiding his face for too long might give the impression that he was going to, though, so he shifted his shoulders briefly to indicate his intentions to Gyoro and Ururun as they might not be aware of it anymore and rolled onto his side to face her with their help. "We should have told you how this works, we didn't mean to do that." Leave them in the dark the way they had. The conversations he'd had with Celine about it had been bad enough and neither of them had wanted the others to have to deal with it before they had to. That and they'd been doing their best to pretend that the situation wasn't what it was whenever they were able to and talking to the others about it would have made it too real. Celine really needed to stop popping into his thoughts so much, he'd never realized how much she did until his and Claude's conversation the other night.

She almost removed her hand to ruffle his hair again at that, but settled for giving him one of her looks before smiling sadly. "Bowman's birthday wouldn't have been as much fun, though." It would have depressing, the same way thinking about Claude's was now. She knew why the two of them had done it and it was another thing that she couldn't be angry at them for; Rena didn't think she would have been able to just come out and fully explain the ritual to either of them if it was her or Claude that was the one going through with it.

He did his best to return the _'Ashton'_ expression she'd given him with his _'Rena' _one as he started shifting off the bed. She just had to remind him of that, didn't she? "One of you could've reminded me about that, I could have gotten him something while we were in Clik." That was number four on his _'Things to make up for to Bowman'_ list, Celine, Claude and Rena telling the pharmacist that their presents were also from him didn't count. If he did this right they could argue about it until Bowman came back. He would hug her again before getting off the bed, but that would distract her from the debate he was trying to start and he really did need to go to the bathroom and brush his teeth if they were going to be talking like this.

/////

Finding Bowman in the ceremonial chamber was quite a blessing so far as Celine was concerned, it quieted Precis' verbal barrage and distracted Claude from his nonverbal attempts at communication with her. Depositing the clay in the depression they were working on quietly, she decided that as the pharmacist was going to be helping them until he judged it safe to return to his own business she would take leave of them to calm herself. She supposed that she should avoid the bathroom and the kitchen, if Rena didn't confine Ashton to his room those would be the places that they would most likely be found. Really, she didn't know what had possessed Claude to leave them alone like that, as if whatever could have come from that would have been good for either of them. Shucking her gloves off, she wondered where she could go as the bathroom was now off limits and she had to pass either that or the kitchen to make it to her room. It didn't sound as though she needed to worry about that, the blond had apparently taken leave of his senses and decided to follow her judging by the soft footfalls she could hear approaching from behind her.

Yeah, Claude had indeed decided to follow the mage after she'd hightailed it out of the room; he'd had enough of the silent treatment she'd been giving him and he was going to get her to talk one way or another. Being one of the leaders of this little group was like herding cats sometimes. Maybe he should have recruited Bowman for this, the pharmacist would've been able to go around the other way and they could both work on her after they cornered her. Then again doing that might have tipped her over the edge, but he was fairly sure that he'd be doing that soon enough anyway so at the very least it would've given her another target. It didn't matter, he needed a distraction again and if she didn't get over whatever it was that he'd done to piss her off before they started the ritual Ashton would notice and none of them needed that. He did his best to adopt an innocent expression as she looked over her shoulder to glare at him as she rounded the corner and when he followed he found himself staring down an empty hallway. Well, at least she'd decided to stop running, it wasn't like she could teleport to the other side of the temple so she had to be in the room with the door hanging wide open. The mage might be planning to attack him preemptively, there weren't any lights on and the only thing down this way were laboratories and studies filled with thick books and other instruments of varying bluntness or sharpness.

As if she would ever get her hands dirty like that or risk breaking a nail over him of all people. Claude truly did need to try toning his imagination down, he was almost as bad as Bowman was at this point. He needed to work on a few other things as well so far as she was concerned, such as the presumptuous attitude he'd taken recently towards things he had no business being presumptive about to begin with. She almost smiled in amusement when he hovered by the doorway, apparently not trusting her to be in control of her temper at the moment. Still, Celine wasn't about to hold this conversation in the dark with the door open the way it was and the others didn't need to know about this, so she summoned a fireball and smiled darkly as he ducked out of the doorway. "Darling, come over here and light this lamp for me, will you?" It was a pity this room didn't have any light sources that were activated by heraldry, that had been her true intention when she'd conjured it but it seemed that they'd need to set a few sheets of paper on fire to light the lamp on the desk behind her.

"Okay." It still took him a second to actually move from position and enter the now dimly lit room. At least she'd found that amusing if the tone of her voice and the fading expression on her face could be trusted, but it also told him just how angry the mage was with him. He should have gotten Bowman to come with, the last time he had seen her anywhere near this enraged the battlefield had been scorched and full of craters by the time she'd noticed that Rena and Noel had gotten certain someone up and moving again. She was probably pulling the same thing he and Ashton had earlier, though, so hopefully he could knock her out of it before any real property damage occurred. "I guess this is about me leaving the two of you alone?" There was no, no way in the world that Ashton had told her about their talk no matter how out of it he was. Hell, he'd been as vague as he could manage when Rena had dragged his confession out of him and had never ratted him out when it really mattered, so if she did know he would take a page from Ashton's imaginary playbook and freeze up or faint from the shock of that revelation.

"Mm." Smart man. Claude was quite lucky that Ashton was as trustworthy as he was; the blond had overstepped his bounds enough earlier today and if she knew that instance was part of a pattern he was developing she might have lost what was left of her restraint. She waited for him light the lamp and shut the door before responding properly, snuffing out the fire she had conjured as she did so. "Really, what possessed you to do such a thing? Were you even _thinking_ when you did that?" It was much easier to ask him that than herself given the situation and redirect that anger and fear she had, destroying the tattooing supplies hadn't been enough and seemed to have made it worse somehow.

He had no idea what'd happened, but apparently it'd been enough to unsettle her and decide to blame him for it. She hadn't been alone with him for that long, though, and Claude found himself wondering how to respond to that without rilling her up further. "I thought you two might want some time alone." _You know, what with the way you were looking at each other. _Saying that last bit would have been a bad idea, but that didn't stop him from thinking it. He hoped she wasn't going to start exhibiting psychic powers or something like that, Ashton did that enough around him but that was just a thing they had. "Besides, you told me to tell Rena he was done." Not that he'd done that.

It was a good thing he'd added that last bit, it gave Celine something to focus on other than the idea that he'd taken note of what had passed between them then. "But you didn't, did you?" She knew he hadn't, Rena wouldn't have asked her how long she needed to wait if he had. The blond must be trying to spark her temper, it seemed that he was going to bring up everything he had done earlier in the day.

Claude was actually trying to figure out how to go about this; he knew how to snap Rena and Ashton out of this type of anger but he had no clue about Celine, she was too collected most of the time to demonstrate this level of rage and mostly confined it to small displays of annoyance. He shook his head at her as she leaned back on the desk and narrowed her eyes at him, and he figured it was a good thing he'd already put a bit of space between them when he shut the door. Maybe if he was far enough away he'd be able to duck whatever she threw at him if he did this wrong.

It was her turn to shake her head as he turned his back fully towards the door and studied her. The blond had apparently forgotten how think critically sometime in the past twelve hours, that was the only explanation she could think of. Never mind the fact that the observation applied to her as well. "What exactly were you expecting to come from that? Did you honestly think that either of us were in any condition at the moment to be left alone like that?" She should have spoken up and asked him to help her pack the inking implements when he moved to stand and then leave instead of falling silent and doing it herself. "I know he didn't encourage you somehow, I wasn't even looking at him and I was well aware just how uncomfortable he was when you did that."

"Okay, so I made a bad call." He might as well admit it, he was Ashton's unofficial therapist not a couples counsellor, it wasn't like he really knew what he was doing in that situation other than trying to encourage him. That was something he might as well admit to, it probably wouldn't shock her out of it like it had the brunet since she knew about it, but maybe if she heard the actual why of it she would start calming down. "I just wanted him to come out and tell you _something _before we went through with it, you deserve that much."

He truly boggled her mind at times. Celine couldn't even shake her head at that, she would have been stuck staring at him if it wasn't for all the thoughts that statement brought up. "Would you appreciate being pushed to hear or say something like that if it was you or Rena going through with this? Do you even think you could trust it?" As if she wanted that, a confession driven by fear and desperation and everything else that was most likely going through his mind then. What had happened was bad enough as far as she was concerned, she would probably thank the demons now instead of slap them for what they had done to pull her out of the moment before she'd lost control of herself, it had been the last thing she desired. "I don't _want_ that, Claude. You know well enough that he's not in his right mind, hasn't been since we got here. Even then I already know even if he hasn't told me and no, it's not just from Ururun though he did help me see it for myself."

"I get that, but…." That just made him wonder if she knew what could happen to Ashton during the ritual; if she realized he might not come out of this himself if he did have a stroke or several of them and Rena's magics couldn't heal enough of it or keep his brain from being damaged from either lack of blood flow, oxygen deprivation or one of the vessels in it bursting. Expellians were similar enough to Earthlings that Claude was certain that if he did have one he could be someone else by the time this over with, that he could have either short or long term personality changes to go along with everything else that kind of brain damaged entailed. "You know that, that when he wakes up he might not be _Ashton_ anymore, right?"

She flinched at the reminder, it was one of the many things she had been doing her best to forget about ever since she realized the scope of the damage he might incur. "Don't talk like that. Just don't, I'm well aware of it and I'd rather not have that on my mind at the moment." This was terrible; she had apparently picked up his fondness for superstitions somehow, that was the only way she could explain this. Never mind how she might have acquired it, she didn't need to be thinking of that again.

"Right." Well, it looked like someone was floating in denial. It was too bad he'd never taken any of them to Earth, if he had he could've made a joke about that. Not that the Nile was an especially pretty sight anymore, but maybe if he'd taken them to a museum or showed them simulations of what it used to look like and told them the history of the river they would've gotten it. Anyway, that wasn't the issue here and he really needed to figure out how to get Celine to calm down a little. He almost wanted to ask what _had_ happened, but that would do the exact opposite of what he was trying to accomplish. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make this harder on either of you, but I guess I did. Do you…would you feel better if you weren't there? I could take care of the book and everything if you don't feel up to it."

The mage gripped the edge of the desk behind her at that and leaned forward slightly, her eyes narrowing at the blond across from her. _"No."_ She wasn't even going to allow herself to acknowledge that apology or entertain that notion, forgiving him would mean letting go of this and Celine wasn't aware of whether Ashton knew that they would all be there with him but she wasn't going to give him a chance to wonder why she wasn't among them either way. He would probably think that she was angry at him or...actually, now that she thought about it he was most likely beating himself up over it and had come to that conclusion already. She really was going to need to work with him on his self confidence, she hadn't seen him in over eight hours and she just knew he was fretting over it. "I'm going to be there through the whole thing. Someone needs to take care of the dragons, after all." If she was lucky Gyoro would be feeling inappropriate and stubborn again and she could distract herself by arguing with him, it was that or she'd wind up hovering and crying behind the others as they tried to stabilize the demons' soon to be former host.

...And there wasn't anything in that about accepting his apology. "Okay." He shouldn't be surprised, he realized as he leaned against the door behind him and shook his head, her complaint was valid enough but this reaction was far beyond what she would normally exhibit, so she'd definitely chosen to focus on that over anything else. Claude almost wanted to try to push her over the edge and get her to release all that anger she had, but he was the only target in the room and he didn't know how long she'd stay in that state before emotionally exhausting herself enough that she could admit to and deal with what she was really feeling underneath it. Either way she definitely didn't need to be acting like this whenever Bowman decided that Ashton was ready to go through with the ritual, so he was going to follow instinct on this one and pull rank on her even if it did make her forget herself and send a spell his way. It was starting to look like he'd wind up in some form of fight with everyone by the time this was over with. "Wait, no, It's _not _okay. You want to be pissed off right now, and I get that, but you're not going anywhere near that room or Ashton again until you calm down and deal with what's really bu–"

That made her snap her spine straight as she glared at him, her crest flaring beneath her clothing as she dug her nails as best she could into the wood of desk behind her to avoid conjuring anything in his direction. _"How dare you!_ I'm not a child, don't you _dare _treat me like one. You're in _no_ position to tell me what I will or _won't_ do, don't you even _attempt it._"

And thar she blows. It was too bad he didn't have his sword on him or better yet a harpoon to go with that thought, he could definitely use something to defend himself. Maybe he should try to develop that habit of Dias and Ashton's and keep his sword close by and wear it all the time, it would have come in handy at the moment. "What, you think Ashton isn't going to notice how high-strung you are the second he sees you? He doesn't need that and you know it, he's bad enough already." He wished she was wearing her old traveling clothes, it would've made noticing whether she was tapping into her crests to focus her magics much, much easier.

She scoffed at that. Really, as if she wasn't aware of just how easily the heraldic swordsman could read her when his self esteem didn't get in the way; she'd had far too many experiences that demonstrated that quite plainly in the past two weeks alone, she didn't need the reminder. She didn't need to be reminded of _any_ of that at the moment. "And you don't think that he'll notice you or Rena or any of the others? You can't possibly be that delusional, Claude, he's going to know one way or another the second he sees us. I'm tired of seeing him in tears and letting him see me the same way, if my only alternative to that is this then I'll take." Celine would almost be amazed if he could even do that anymore, he had undoubtably ran himself dry several times the same way she had since they had arrived.

He had no idea that the two of them had been leaning on each other so heavily and he almost couldn't believe that she'd let someone see her in that state even if it was Ashton. Claude found himself wondering vaguely how something hadn't happened before whatever it was that _had_ happened after he'd left them alone if that was the case. "That's not what I'm saying," he gestured widely with one hand quickly, grimacing as he spoke. "Yeah, he's going to know we're scared; he'd be an idiot not to, but he's going to be expecting that and if you're pissed off like this it's going to get him worried or even more on edge or something and he doesn't need that on top of everything else. Hell, knowing him he'll probably think he's the one you're mad at for whatever it was that he did when I left you two alone." He really wanted to know what that was now, Ashton obviously hadn't come out and said what Claude thought he needed to, but whatever had happened had managed to shake her up in a way he'd never seen before.

If he kept bringing that up she was going to lose control of her temper and let loose on him, she was approaching the point that she didn't much care anymore. "He didn't _do_ anything." So far as Celine was concerned she was the one that had started the whole thing. If she hadn't come forward and hugged and kissed him like that he wouldn't have had the opportunity to surprise her the way he had. She should have known better, the situation being what it was she would have done it herself if he hadn't beaten her to it. That would have been even worse; she wouldn't have been anywhere near as hesitant about it and who knows where it would have led if the dragons had managed to control their curiosity long enough for her to become involved to the point that she could ignore them, their host didn't seem to have that problem, at least. She was grateful she was outwardly as enraged as she was, so long as she continued glaring at him like this he might think her flush was solely a side effect of her anger. "If he so much breathes one word about it I'll tell him that myself. He probably already thinks that, he doesn't need to see me to have those thoughts, you know that; he'll start tearing himself down at the slightest provocation."

Yeah, that faint blush that started to form even before she spoke combined with the way her eyes darted about as she protested made him want to track the topic of their conversation down, slap him on the back and see if he remembered any of those dap handshakes he'd taught him in Central City after the Ten Wise Men outed him as an alien and destroyed the planet; he hadn't thought Celine capable of blushing like this, but apparently Ashton had managed to do _something_ to cause that reaction. He needed to hide the expression that was forming in response to that thought and look halfway serious at least, so he crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaned back against the door, ducked his head and nodded, making a strangled sound that he hoped passed for a noise of approval or acceptance even as his throat tightened and he tried to hide the smile that was starting to form. It couldn't have just been a hug, they'd done that back when they'd all been traveling together, though it had been rarer than Ashton and Rena hugging, and they'd shared the same bed at least once that he was aware of, but he hadn't told her how he felt, so….Scratch that, apparently he had, just not verbally. It was about time.

Claude was blessed to have retained enough of his common sense to nod, if he hadn't she would have lost her temper at that look he was trying to hide and the chocked back giggle that he seemed to think was a substitute for a _'yes.'_ "I'm so glad to see that you agree with me. Now if you don't mind, could you step away from the door for me?" _Before I hurt you?_ This conversation was over so far as she was concerned; he'd given in whether he realized it at the moment or not and Celine wasn't inclined to continue this in the least. If she ever heard one word of this again from him, Bowman, Rena, or anyone else she swore she was going to make him wish he had never been born.

It didn't matter at this point, he guessed, she was going to hold on to that anger as best she was able until the ritual shocked it out of her. Celine didn't even mean it, he knew she didn't and this whole thing would be forgotten about assuming he never, ever told anyone about this. He couldn't even hold it against her given that he'd nearly done the same thing earlier with Ashton, so he knew damn well what she was doing. Claude didn't bother nodding at that, just unfolded his arms and reached behind him to open the door and stepped out, holding it for her as she stalked past him and headed down the hall. He watched her until she faded from view behind a corner, making a mental note to ask Rena to go to the supply entrance to the temple if she wasn't back before they were ready to begin, that seemed to be her destination now.

/////

If Ashton didn't start taking care of himself again after all this was over Rena was going to drag him back to Arlia for the rest of winter to retrain him, she'd already had to stand over him to make sure he would eat earlier and now she'd had to remind him that he needed to shave and grabbed his travel bag for him when he handwaved it away saying it wasn't that bad. It was okay for now since he wasn't himself due to everything he was dealing with but it just wasn't him; he was the guy that could always be trusted to pay attention the that type of thing and had prettier jewelry than most of the girls of their group save Opera and Celine and even then it was a tie. She knew he was trying to distract her to keep from talking about himself, but he was going to so when he finally emerged from the bathroom looking more than halfway decent she led him to the kitchen. At least he was together enough to remember his manners, if he hadn't pulled the chair out for her she would have dragged him to the ceremonial chamber to grab Claude so they could start working on him ahead of time. Rena wasn't too worried about Bowman wondering where they'd gone, he knew the two of them well enough to know that if they were anywhere other than his room they'd probably be here. "You know we're all going to be there, right?" Bowman had told her that he'd informed him of that, but he'd already admitted he was scared so maybe reassuring him again would help him open up a little.

He almost froze at that even as he moved to sit beside her. "Ah...B-Bowman and Claude talked to me about it." Not that he liked the idea. He'd already been an idiot with Celine once today and if she was going to be in front of him with Claude he didn't know what he would do. Rena wasn't going to let go of this, that much was obvious, she hadn't taken the bait when he'd asked about the wedding and that had been his best bet since the healer wouldn't let him start any petty debates. He hoped Bowman came back soon. Ururun whined again and curled himself under his jaw, and there weren't any actual words behind that for him to translate. He was going to have to make this up to the demon and his brother, they weren't used to this type of total separation from him at all anymore. If he was going to be honest with himself, he wasn't either. Their mental connection might be completely closed off, but he could still feel his hand running under his jaw as he soothed the dragon although it was muted as if the contact was being made through a layer of cloth. That wasn't the feedback that the dragons normally sent him, it was too dull and there was no echo to it so it had to be that old side effect of their nerves being interlaced with his that had disturbed him so much in the beginning. "I know you have to be there for it but I wish the rest of them weren't." Hopefully they wouldn't feel it when Bowman inserted those things in him or when he cut him; if he remembered right they hadn't be able to feel what he felt before the connection had formed, for some reason it had only happened to him when he was the one doing the touching.

"Why? We want to be there." He was being silly again. She scooted her chair closer to his so that she could pet Ururun and Gyoro as well, the red demon seemed to be taking whatever Ashton had done this time better than his brother but he still needed to be comforted. Maybe their host would feel it too, if he could she would be taking care of the three of them at the same time.

He couldn't and found himself blinking at the partial confirmation of the theory he had been entertaining as he answered. It was good thing he couldn't, it'd feel like she was running her hands through his hair given the way she was half scratching, half stroking Gyoro between his horns if he could and that might have reminded him of Celine again. "I don't want them to see that. I don't want any of you to see that." Maybe it would have been harder on them and he was being selfish, but he would have been more comfortable if they were wringing their hands in the hallway until Gyoro or Ururun opened the door and let them in. The three of them would have died if he lost too much blood and the dragons didn't stay conscious while being transferred, though, so maybe it was better this way.

She wished he would look at her instead of staring at the wall or the table, Rena would feel much better if he would make eye contact or just look in her direction when he spoke. He was probably doing it to keep calm, though, so she wouldn't say anything. It was easy enough to see where he was coming from; Rena wouldn't want anyone to see that either if she was him and was going to be doing the best she could to tune him out until Bowman or one of the others called for her, so she couldn't argue against that. "I know. Wouldn't you want to be there if it was one of us, though?" She knew he would, he wouldn't be their friend if he didn't. Actually, if that type of disregard had been a part of his personality they probably wouldn't have entertained the notion of having him join them. It was good thing he'd calmed down fairly quickly and showed them what he was really like, their first impression of him hadn't been a good one, not that they could blame him for it.

He managed to look at her at that question. "You know I would." _Oh Tria, if it was Rena that was doing this…_.Ashton really didn't want to think of that, it just made it all too clear to him how much this was hurting them. It was bad enough as it was, he knew how much pressure he was putting on them just from the way they had all acted since this began; _Dias_ had managed to be nice to him nonstop for more than a _week _somehow. That just didn't happen with him, you were lucky if he didn't dismiss your presence five minutes into any conversation with him until he decided that he liked you, and then you had to deal with him pushing you away and making odd threats here and there. Well, unless Rena was around. It must be that sibling-like relationship they had, she somehow managed to tone down his antisocial inclinations enough that he could almost be accused of being…well, social. In a Dias way, of course. "It's just…I'm so tired of doing this to you. All of you. I mean, just look at this. I dragged you, Claude, and Dias away from the Arlia when you should be happy, spending time together and getting ready for the wedding, did the same thing to Bowman and his wife, made him miss his birthday with her when the only thing he should be concerned about is the baby, who knows what project Precis was involved in that she had drop for this, I showed up on Celine's doorstep and made her so worried that…." He stopped himself at that, he really didn't need to go there.

He was starting to tense up as he spoke, so she stopped petting the dragons and bent forward to hug him and rub his back. "We wouldn't have come if we didn't want to." Ururun was being an Ashton hog so she couldn't really lay her head on his shoulder like she wanted to when he didn't pull away, but she still did her best to rest as much of it there as she could. They really should have done this sooner; if her, Bowman and Claude had sat him and Celine down somewhere private and talked about this they might be handling it better. Rena hoped that Claude hadn't tried to get Celine to unload without her or Bowman present, her fiancé tended to follow his gut and was too blunt most of the time and while that could work on the heraldic swordsman it had the opposite effect on the mage unless it was done just right.

If it wasn't for the way that Claude and Rena had gotten off to such rocky start with each other he wouldn't have gotten used to this. It was terrible to be thankful for that, but before Dias had joined them and they'd started figuring everything out he had been the only one she would hang off of. Of course, the dragons had been a major factor in that; between the way Gyoro and Ururun basked in her attentions and the lovely depressive spells he'd gone through when he'd first joined them, the three of them had managed to tug on her heartstrings enough that she'd spent the first two months treating him like a lost puppy when he wasn't making her testy by complaining about the demons. Well, that and the way he had always bothered her for advice about them. They'd never settled on a birthdate for them, so maybe if this worked it could be today or tomorrow depending on what time it was when they were transferred to their new bodies. "Do you remember that question I asked you in Giveaway?" She might as well get to sound out her opinion on this and he didn't think the dragons could hear his thoughts at the moment, so his choices were limited to doing it now or after the ritual and he needed something that wasn't himself to talk about until he calmed down again.

She scrunched her face at that, partially in concentration as she tried to remember which dragon related issue they'd tried to sort out there but also because he was trying to change the subject again. If this proved to be too far removed from it then...oh, that was when he'd been wondering about their birthdays. It was related enough if it was going where she thought it was, so she'd give him a pass on this one. He needed to relax a bit before they got back into it, she really didn't want him to get so upset he would start crying since he might take a while to calm down. "Did you ever figure one out for them?" He better not be getting ready to announce he had changed his own birthday for the demons. That was silly so far as she was concerned, especially since they were all technically older than they were on Expel due to the time they'd spent in Energy Nede.

He hoped they came out of this with their mental voices and different hair and eye color than his, it would be weird enough looking at the two of them and seeing his own face staring back at him. "No, but I'm wondering about today or tomorrow being theirs since they'll be in the golems if this works." The dragons had strange ways of knowing things that he couldn't grasp and they'd never faltered once throughout this entire ordeal, there had to be something to that certainty. That was what he kept telling himself, anyway.

Rena liked that idea, it showed that there was some part of him that _did_ think everything would be okay and the date itself made sense to her. The demons didn't seem to know their real birthdays but they were getting ready to be transferred into their new bodies so it would be a birth in a strange way. Besides, they'd already decided in Giveaway that it couldn't be the day they'd possessed Ashton as that was technically the day their true body had died and they'd become possessing spirits, it was more like their _'deathday'_ than anything else. Ururun had uncurled himself from around Ashton to consider his host and brother, so Rena decided to rest her head where she really wanted to. She'd let the dragons answer first and save her response until they were finished talking, which had almost become a foreign experience by now since they didn't need to do so for Ashton to understand them. He must have done something to interfere with that, this was the first time they'd spoken aloud like this that she was aware of since the first time they went to L'Aqua. "I think it'd be a good birthday. What do they say?"

"They don't really understand why it should be then," he explained, shifting his attention from the dragons to her as they quieted. They still spoke aloud occasionally but it was mostly when they were shocked or upset by something, like when Dias had made his challenge. He was almost surprised that they didn't get it but then again they'd never considered themselves dead to begin with, he'd just told Rena that because Gyoro had been offended by the idea and if he had told her what he'd really said he would have been stuck in the middle of a fight, so he guessed he could understand where the confusion was coming from. "Ah, well, when you get transferred it'll kinda be like...being, um, reborn in new bodies." If they were still mentally linked like they normally were or if they were alone he'd explain it with more detail, but Rena was here. She really didn't need the mental picture that she would probably get if she heard about how the two of them and the crests were going to be passed through his body to the clay. Technically it was through his blood but he still didn't want to think about it too much, giving birth was a process men didn't typically apply to themselves considering...well, considering. They weren't exactly built for it for one thing. He turned his face away from her, blinked and stared past the dragons as he tried to get rid of the images that were forming in his mind in response to his thoughts. Why did he have to think about that? He should have blanked his mind the second they'd started going in that direction. Maybe if he hugged Rena back it would force them out and distract him until the dragons were done thinking amongst themselves.

If she'd been aware of the why for it she might not have been quite so pleased with the one-armed hug he was giving her, but she didn't so she took it as a sign that he was relaxing. Luckily for him she was a little too preoccupied watching the dragons as they silently conversed with one another to notice the look on their host's face at the moment. It took them almost an entire minute, but eventually the two of them bobbed their heads in unison, Ururun ducking down to the position he had held before the conversation had started and giving her a pleading look as Gyoro spoke aloud and leaned over to start nibbling at her hair. "Do they have birthdays now?" She'd never been able to resist Ururun's puppy eyes before and if she didn't move Gyoro might steal her hairpin and try to make a game of it, so she leaned forward on the table to put space between them and looked to their host.

"Uh, yeah." It was a good thing the demons had taken so long to make up their minds, if they'd given a simple _'yes'_ or _'no'_ right away he might not have been able to school his expression and thoughts before she looked at him. "Gyoro said it was fine, he just wished it was a warmer day." Ashton suspected that the dragon had agreed to the date so easily out of concern for his wellbeing and deference to her, he was normally adamant that his birthday should be sometime in the summer months. If Gyoro changed his mind later he would be in for a rude awakening, the Nedian beside him wouldn't let him change it now that she knew that he'd agreed to it. That was one thing he actually found himself looking forward to; with the two of them running around in their own bodies everyone would get a chance to see just what he'd been putting up with for so long. They better not start telling on him, if they did he would retaliate and drag out every inappropriate or unintentionally hurtful thing they had ever thought about the other members of their group. Like that one conclusion they'd come to after the Arms Tournament. Well, maybe not that one. Rena, Claude and Dias probably wouldn't take the news that the demons used to think that the three of them had been _'courting'_ each other very well and he might have to explain that Gyoro and Ururun had somehow thought that all humans were polygamous bisexuals for the first four months. That wasn't even the worst example; they'd somehow thought that he was pursuing Claude, Rena, Celine and then Precis and Opera all at the same time until Dias and then Ernest had joined them, which had left them to constantly interrogate him about the inventor and the mage. That wasn't quite right, they'd always been exceedingly curious about Celine and their relationship for some reason, even more than they had been about him and Precis. Not that it meant that they understood what had been going on with him then, because if they had that would mean that….When was it that they'd first started asking him _those_ questions about Celine? Was it before or after–No, he didn't want to know the answer to that. "Do you want something to drink?" He needed something to focus himself on other than his thoughts, he was starting to become as spacey as Ururun.

Ashton really did need to stop that, she'd been getting ready to pass a hand in front of his face to see if he was still there until he said that, dropped his arm from around her and started vibrating his right leg like a madman. He must be getting jittery and looking for a way to work it out of his system. "Sure." He wasn't going to keep their conversation off topic much longer, the second he was looking relaxed enough she'd be right back at it. She did need to bottle some tea on the off chance that she ran through all the blackberries before Bowman decided he was stable enough for her to stop, though, so he could help her with that while they talked.

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It was going to be well past midnight before they even started the ritual going by the way this was looking, and Bowman wasn't exactly happy about that. He should have known what Claude was going to do the second he left the room but for some reason he hadn't and now Celine had gone back into hiding. She would know it was him coming this time, he'd brought his medical bag with him and was doing everything he could to make sure that it bounced noisily against his leg as he moved, so hopefully she wouldn't run when she heard him coming.

She was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, it seemed that the repeating mosaics on the walls of the temple had a tendency to turn her ex-fiancé around if he wasn't being diligent. "Bowman, darling," she called, turning her head over her shoulder so her voice would carry down the hallway better, "I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but the living quarters are the other way." Silence descended for a moment as the thumping sound stopped before resuming in her direction. Apparently he hadn't deserved her generosity, especially if he was going to abuse it in such a manner. Celine turned and found herself glaring at the wagon from her sitting position beside the entryway as she tossed another rock at its wooden base and scowled. If she hadn't known better she might have thought he had timed his little visit, she only had a few left and they were all on the small side.

The plinking sound told him that she was armed with rocks or something similar at least, but that didn't change anything; the woman was a crest mage, so long as her skin was still attached to her body she was fully loaded and ready to fire at all times. He was pretty sure that had been how Opera had put it, at least. Either way, rocks or no rocks, she wasn't going to hurt him. He wasn't Claude, for one thing. Their relationship, being the closest thing this team had to a physician and being one of the blood donors would also give her pause and even without all of that, it was _Celine_. The worst thing she would do is slap him or _maybe_ send a fireball his way and then apologize for losing control of herself once she calmed down. Even if caution wasn't what the situation called for, some measure of delicacy was so when he found her by the temple entrance he leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the entryway and watched her unload what was left of her ammo on the wagon before speaking. "Been wondering where you'd gone off to."

Humming lightly at that, Celine leaned back against the stone wall behind her and looked over to him. "Is everything ready?" She wished he had come up with a better method of keeping the IV lines stable and out of the way, he'd completely ruined his shirt by the looks of it.

"I've still got to put his catheters in." He'd given Rena nearly half an hour to work on Ashton, so maybe she'd managed to get somewhere with him. The Nedian was going to be getting a least a few more minutes since he needed to get Celine up and moving before he left. "You want to come with?" If that didn't get her up physically it would emotionally at the very least.

She didn't even need to think on that. "I don't think that would be a good idea at the moment." It was a pity she'd thrown all the rocks, she didn't have anything to work all her excess energy out and distract herself with now.

He knew it. Claude shouldn't have left the two of them alone like he apparently had, whatever it was that happened then had thrown the mage again. "Want to talk about it?" If she said _'no'_ he had no idea what he was going to do to get her calm again. Celine worked things out by using people as a sounding board for her thoughts more than anything, it was almost like listening to her talk to herself when she really got going.

Really, of all the people that she had a history with it just to have been him that joined them. The blond hadn't told him just what this was about, he would be much less direct if he did know. "It's nothing, really. I did something I shouldn't have and he probably thinks I'm angry at him." He best not ask what that was, the pharmacist normally had enough wits about him to recognize other people's boundaries but with the situation being what it was and the stress they were all under he might have forgotten.

Bowman really didn't want to know; helping her with this was one thing, knowing the details was a whole other matter. He made thoughtful noise and cast his mind back, searching his memory for anything that Ashton had done to indicate that he thought he was in the doghouse with the mage. "I didn't see anything like that….No, wait, he hid his face for awhile after Rena woke him up. That doesn't always mean anything with him, though." So far as the pharmacist could tell it just meant that he was conscious, the same rule applied to blushing and stuttering.

"And even if it didn't I should still let him know I'm not to be sure." It wasn't as if she didn't know where that would be going, she might as well skip ahead a bit for them. The dilemma was that some part of her _was_ angry at him, the same way she was herself, as ridiculous as that was. Still, if she didn't reassure him about this he might apologize in front of everyone during the ritual and that would be far too much. "I suppose if there's time I can drag him aside and tell him not to bother himself over it." Very quickly. They had already proven that they couldn't be trusted to behave themselves when left alone under the current circumstances, there was no need to temp fate again.

She must have been working herself to that conclusion in her head and waiting for a push of some kind to decide her for it to have gone that easily, he'd been expecting some resistance. "I'll say I need to grab something out of my room real quick and ask Rena to get the stretcher Precis made and hide it in the storage room so you two can talk." That was assuming she'd be coming with him, but if she tried to do it at another time it would be obvious what was going on and despite a few odd instances he'd witnessed she was still fiercely protective of her privacy.

Watching the pharmacist insert the catheters was not something that Celine wanted to witness, it would just be one more thing that made this situation all the more inevitable. She shook her head and closed her eyes at that, trying to come up with alternative that would be subtle and prevent the others from suspecting something. "I'd much rather not be there for that."

The mage couldn't see it with her eyes closed, but he still nodding his head at her words. "Trust me, I don't want to be there myself. None of us do. It's the best thing I can come up with, though." Tria, did he _not _want to be there. He had practice controlling and hiding these type of nerves from working with patients, physicians and the medical school, but he still found himself wishing that Precis would do something insane so he focus himself on her again. It wasn't like he could borrow someone's cellphone and call Nineh to talk about this, she was already stressed enough with the baby and taking care of the pharmacy on her own and Celine had held this in for so long that he wouldn't dare discuss his nervousness and uncertainty with her, it would just make her worse than she already was.

That was true enough on all counts; not only could she not come up with a suitable alternative, but she doubted that any sane person would want to witness what they were going to out of sheer curiosity. Well, except a medical student or one inclined in such a fashion, but that type of inquisitiveness was normally driven by a need to understand or help others and it typically wasn't demonstrated for them on a loved one. "I'll go, but first, I…." She couldn't believe she was going to ask this, it just asking for trouble. " I want you to be honest with me."

"Always." He had a feeling he knew what this about; it was same thing he'd been going over in his head ever since Ashton sat down in that fucking chair. This entire situation made him wish alternately in turn that he either was a medical doctor or had never opened a medicinal related text in his life, quizzing the professors and borrowing their books to study for this hadn't helped alleviate that overwhelming sense of unpreparedness he'd had ever since she called him. Maybe he should have taken Thwaite up on his offer and waited for to him to cancel his classes, suspend his research and give his team a vacation and brought him along, but none of them would have dealt with having a veritable stranger in their midst very well considering the circumstances and the professor was a frail old man to begin with, he shouldn't be traveling like this. That and the dragons or Precis probably would have killed him by now.

She desperately needed to stand for this, sitting on the floor was too passive at the moment and made her feel far too powerless. "Will he still be himself after all this?" There was something to the possibility that was more frightening than his death for her now; it was a greater unknown, something she couldn't prepare herself for. Not that she'd prepared herself very well for this to begin with, apparently, but the idea that he could be either a radically different person or just off enough to not be the man they knew for the rest of his life was disturbing.

Bowman almost shook his head at the question but stopped himself as he watched her stand; if he allowed himself to do that she might think it contradicted his words even if it was an expression of uncertainty. "I don't know." He wished he could give her a definitive answer on this, but Rena had never attempted to heal a stroke or heart attack or cardiac arrest while it was occurring and her powers couldn't repair tissue after it had died or deteriorated too much from what he'd gathered from talking to her. They could force fluid from punctured lungs, though, he knew that much from personal experience, so hopefully if they caught the signs of him having a stroke or being in cardia arrest early enough she could....Well, he didn't know exactly what it would do. "If we're lucky Rena's heraldry'll reverse any early damage and put his body in stasis until we've got his blood supply up to an acceptable level. I can't see it doing absolutely nothing, so at worse he should come out of this with minor or even just short term side effects." Then again if he had several large strokes back to back or went in to cardiac arrest and didn't respond to the resuscitation methods they had available to them he didn't know what would happen, never mind the fact that if he lost as much as Bowman was expecting him to the transfusions themselves could be dangerous. They didn't have any monitoring equipment; it would be easy for them to misjudge and have him wind up still in grade one or even two shock due to dangerously depleted blood levels or it could go the other way and he didn't know what a rapid transition from having low volume to being overloaded would do, it could put them right back to square one. That was what the cannula he was going to put in the back of his hand was for, with it in place they could drain excess blood from his system without worrying about Rena's magics. She didn't need to know that, he was going to be honest with her but he would still try to keep everything as positive as he could. "He's got an abnormally slow resting heart rate as it is, but Dias does as well and neither of them have adverse side effects so it's probably thanks to all the training they do. Between that and the dragons he might have more blood in his system than someone his size should, so hopefully with all that going for him his body will handle it better than it would otherwise." Ashton's situation was weird enough that Bowman wasn't sure typical medical expectations applied anymore; the demons had been attached to him for so long that they had obviously affected his psyche, it would be idiotic to think they hadn't done something to his body beyond the obvious as well. The pharmacist hadn't been there when he'd been possessed or for the attempted exorcism but it looked to him like Anchors should have killed the two of them when he had the chance. Okay, so part of that was just from the relationship he had with them, he could admit that, but he couldn't imagine tolerating everything they'd obviously done to their host since they'd last seen him. It must be some bizarre form of Stockholm syndrome, that was the only way he could explain the obvious affection Ashton had for them.

Celine wasn't a doctor to any degree real or imagined, so her first instinct was to assume that the abnormalities her ex-fiancé listed were not desirable to begin with. "How exactly is that a good thing?" Really, that sounded like something that just made this situation more, not less, dangerous. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of it as unusual in Cross or Clik, she'd spent more than enough time listening to his heartbeat then to notice it was rather slow but she hadn't connected it to his health in such a manner.

He should have just said he was in great physical condition, the pharmacist hadn't meant to rile her up. "It means he's got a strong heart and circulatory system." His heart was most likely larger and thicker than average too, but saying that would just deepen her concern. "It's a good thing, Celine, it means his body's adapted to handle long periods of stress. They call it 'athletic heart syndrome,' him and Dias both have it. If the rest of us had gone off and travelled like the two of them after we got back we would all probably have it by now. If you locked him in a room and didn't let him exercise for three to six months it'd go back to normal. He'd go stir crazy, lose some of his muscle mass and maybe pack some fat on if he didn't adjust his diet, but his heart would go back to normal." And then it would go right back to where it had been if he started training again, from what he'd gathered Ashton had been brought up to be a fighter so his heart had probably been the way it was for years if not a decade or more at this point given all the training he seemed to have had.

Oh, well then. Celine supposed she would never be putting him under house arrest like she had in Clik again, she rather liked him as he was once the dragons were excluded. Still, she needed to be reassured a bit more if she was going to go with him, if only so she had something to repeat to herself when she saw him again. "So you think that makes it more likely he'll be all right?"

"I think that along with Rena's powers will keep him from dying on us and'll reduce the chances of having anything else go wrong with him afterwards." That was what he was hoping, anyway. The Nedian's magics did have limits, they'd seen that with Eleanor. She couldn't cure the terminally ill or raise the dead, if he flatlined on them and they couldn't get his heart to start again by compressing his chest and injecting him with the epinephrine and atropine he'd brought or the mage before him lobbing some lightning at him then the three of them would be gone.

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Author's Notes: For anyone wondering why Bowman pressing down on Ashton's ulnar nerve caused that reaction: the ulnar nerve is what you're really hitting when you hit or bang your 'funny bone.' Hitting it where he did in real life does not cause that reaction and is an allusion to the reaction that people associate with it, so it's just more artistic license and me torturing characters again. There's several other things such as the placement of certain arteries that I'm being inaccurate about while writing this since I don't need anyone thinking that these are good or easy places to hurt themselves and having that possibility on my conscience.

**ACTUAL EXTRA SPECIAL PRE NEXT UPDATE ANNOUNCEMENT: **The ritual and the preparation for it is going to be _graphic and as true to life as possible_. _**IF BLOOD, THE EFFECTS OF RAPID BLOOD LOSS ON THE BODY AND MIND AND/OR MEDICAL PROCEDURES FREAK YOU THE FUCK OUT DO NOT READ ANYTHING IN THE NEXT CHAPTER THAT IS ITALICIZED AND PRECEDED BY THIS: **_**~****~ **Seriously folks, you're getting fair warning here, I've even bolded the damn thing. And posted it twice now. Because I suuuck.


	11. Chapter 10

Summary: Yeah, like I'm going to bother with this. l was off in my estimates, combined with the last chapter this would have been over 50,000 words if I hadn't split it up. The warning symbol is being applied rather broadly during the ritual, I might go back and be more specific later, but I'm too lazy to do it right now.

Author's Note: There is a slight difference between an intravenous cannula and a catheter (quick, dirty and slightly inaccurate explanation: Cannulas are short, fairly stiff tubes that have trocars [solid needles of varying size that puncture the skin as the tubing can't do it] inside of them, once the trocar is removed you technically have the injection portal/hub of a catheter, although actual catheter ports and tubes tend to be much more flexible and/or considerably larger than what is typically found with cannulas and are used to withdraw and introduce fluids to the circulatory system while simple cannulas are used for one or the other instead of both.), but for the most part the two can be considered the same for this writing as I don't feel like splitting hairs and cannulas are often used to insert catheters for peripheral IV lines. It's been my experience that when people who are not in the medical field hear the word 'catheter' they think of a urinary catheter, but I'm still going to use the terms 'cannula' and 'catheter' interchangeably, 'cause that's how I roll. Now that I've gotten that announcement out of the way, here's another one: If you are in the medical field or have interests therein know that I'm going to be taking some liberty with a few things despite what is said in the warning and I realize that there are events presented here that are inconsistent with typical expectations and practices, uncommon, dangerous, or even virtually impossible. 'Tis fiction, people.

**WARNING: **The ritual and the preparation for it is going to be _graphic and as true to life as possible_. _**IF BLOOD, THE EFFECTS OF RAPID BLOOD LOSS ON THE BODY AND MIND AND/OR MEDICAL PROCEDURES FREAK YOU THE FUCK OUT DO NOT READ ANYTHING IN THIS CHAPTER THAT IS ITALICIZED AND PRECEDED BY THIS: **_**~****~ **Oh, by the way, don't use the medical techniques described here on anyone unless you've had medical training or are under the supervision of someone in the field. _**THE SITE APPARENTLY DECIDED TO EAT ALL MY PAGE BREAKS SOMETIME THIS PAST WEEK AND THE ABOVE NO LONGER WORKS. I'M NOT SURE WHEN THEY DECIDED THAT ASTERISKS ARE THE WORK OF THE DEVIL, BUT I WENT BACK AND PUT FORWARD AND BACKSLASHES WHERE THEY USED TO BE. I'M NOT GOING TO WASTE MY TIME FIGHTING WITH THIS SITE FOR A SPECIAL PAGE BREAK TO DENOTE THAT STUFF HERE SO JUST DON'T READ ANY PARAGRAPH THAT'S IN ITALICS IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH ABOUT THE ABOVE, M'KAY?**_ No, I'm not going to use the page breaks that this site provides. I've become way too wordy and they don't break the scene changes well enough for my tastes unless I cheat and stack them and then weird formatting errors start appearing in the site preview. Yeah, this is late because that pissed me off so much that I walked away from it for a couple days.

Disclaimer: Square Enix owns the Star Ocean games and the characters associated with it, I'm just torturing them in my spare time. I make no profit from this that I know of, though I did find a dollar on the sidewalk the other day. Does that count?

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It had been the dragons that noticed first, the tensing of their bodies dragging his attention from Rena and the tea they were bottling to the hallway and the faint bumping noise and footsteps that softly echoed off the stone walls. He'd been wondering when Bowman would show up, it had definitely been more than the ten or fifteen minute timeframe he'd given them. He...he guessed that he should call out, tell him that they were here in the kitchen on the off chance that he was going to his room, but his vocal cords seemed to be paralyzed at the moment, just like the rest of him.

Rena had almost thought he was stretching his side or arm out until he froze and then she realized what had caused that reaction. She reached out to rub his back below Ururun and felt him tense under her hand and pulled it away; it looked like he'd finally gotten too on edge again to stand being touched for the time being. "Bowman, we're in the kitchen." It sounded like he was coming this way but it was better to err on the side of caution, Ashton had become so tense so quickly that she wasn't sure he would be able to stand it if the pharmacist took too long getting here.

"I'm sorry." He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath until he said that, barely realized he had tensed up and almost pulled away from her, but her voice had managed to bring him back enough that he could move and speak again. He needed to learn how to stop doing that one day, she had just been trying to help.

She wasn't even going to say anything to that, one of her looks got her point across just fine. Smiling at him when he frowned at her, she turned back to the counter and grabbed his glass and held it out to him. "You should go ahead and sit down before he gets here, get as comfortable as you can." She'd been a mother hen with him all day, there was no sense in stopping now. Besides, he was fun to boss around, it made her wish she really did have a little brother.

He didn't know why the healer and the pharmacist kept trying to get him to drink, the last thing he wanted to do was wet himself later. Unless Bowman had brought one of those urinary catheters and hadn't told him, if that was the case he better be knocked out for the insertion and the bag hidden by the time he woke up. He shouldn't have thought about that around Rena, now he was blushing again. Maybe she hadn't noticed, he had already accepted the glass and was walking away from her and towards the table to sit down.

Ashton blushed at the oddest times, she swore he must make up imaginary reasons embarrassed, it was that or he had somehow managed to hide a mind so dirty it would make even Bowman's face pink if they knew what he was really thinking. Maybe he just needed to spend more time with everyone and get used to being around people again, he hadn't been this self conscious while they were traveling together. Capping off the bottles of tea as the footsteps in the hall grew louder and more distinct, Rena found herself blinking at the bottle in her hands as a second set of footsteps registered. She hoped Bowman knew what he was doing; that definitely wasn't Claude or Dias, the footfalls were too soft and close together and Precis tended to jog, run or stomp more than walk, so it had to be Celine he was bringing with him. It looked like Ashton had come to the same conclusion going by the way he was rubbing at his face and she found herself wondering if she should rush into the hall, turn the mage away and ask the pharmacist if he had lost his mind.

Knowing Claude, Rena was probably still out of the loop regarding the recent drama that had been going on for the past half hour on the other side of the temple, so Bowman wasn't all that surprised by the look on her face as he entered the kitchen with Celine in tow. He wouldn't tell her unless he had to, the last thing he needed was to be on both Claude and Celine's bad sides. His patient wasn't looking very happy either, but the pharmacist hadn't been expecting a positive reaction from the younger brunet even before he'd decided to check on and bring his ex along. It looked like the Nedian had been following his lead and trying to get Ashton to drink judging by the half full glass of water on the table beside him, and Bowman found himself nodding at her in appreciation as he placed his medical bag on the table, started unloading the supplies he would need, and went about cutting a dozen strips of gauze for him to use during this.

Celine was going to hover by the entryway until Bowman was finished, she would rather not have a first row seat to the catheters being inserted, it was nerve-racking enough knowing that she'd be right there in front of them while the incisions were made. Rena was giving her a questioning look from the other end of the room and she nodded lightly before turning her attention to the two brunets at the table. If Ashton wasn't watching Bowman's hands so intently and looking so tense she might have responded verbally, but he didn't seem to be taking her presence or the situation very well and adding her voice to the mix wasn't necessary at the moment. She was rather thankful that Bowman talked her into coming with him, the younger brunet had most definitely convinced himself he had done something he shouldn't have earlier judging by his reaction to her presence.

Ashton had been expecting Celine to start ignoring him or maybe glaring at him if he had managed to make her that angry, but her gaze didn't feel anywhere near as heavy as he'd been expecting it to once she looked at him. It could just be wishful thinking, though, so he didn't glance up at her, choosing instead to watch as Bowman grabbed a long, thin length of blue plastic and stretched it in his hands. Watching this might be a bad idea. He wasn't normally so turned off by medical procedures and the sight of his own blood had never disturbed him before, but given the circumstances he supposed he could forgive himself for being such a coward. Rena was coming forward and he almost hoped she would start hugging him again, but he'd probably scared her off that by tensing up the last time she'd tried to comfort him. That didn't stop him from looking up at her once she came to stand beside him, almost wishing he hadn't when he realized she hadn't blocked his view of Celine completely, but….Maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought; she didn't look angry, she seemed more worried than anything. Tria, he hoped he made through this if just so he could make this up to all of them.

Bowman must have calmed Celine down, she had almost been worried when Ashton's eyes shifted from hers and landed on the mage behind her until an almost relieved expression came over his face and she looked over at her, finding a tight but reassuring smile there. They must have had an argument after Claude left them alone; it was rare but the two of them could butt heads occasionally, though it never lasted for long since Ashton couldn't stay mad at people and Celine had always been the same way when it came to him, at least. She couldn't believe she'd never put all the little things she knew about them together before, if she had they might have been able to get the two of them to admit it. If they had Ashton might have stayed somewhere in Cross or even in Mars and they would have known when Gyoro and Ururun's possession of him started becoming so invasive, unstable and disturbing. He was still looking a little tense, but he also looked like he needed some comforting, so she wrapped her arm around his shoulders and rested her head against Ururun's cool neck, finding herself relieved that the dragon's host was accepting the affection again.

Well, he'd played with the tourniquet enough, it was time to get this show on the road. "Ready?" Bowman glanced at Rena before settling his gaze on his patient, she needed to make sure to steel herself for this so she could reign her powers in again before he started inserting the cannulas and setting the catheters up. It took a second for Ashton to tear his attention away from the healer and the mage, but once he did he managed and affirmative noise before looking away again and shutting his eyes. Apparently he'd become temporarily blood shy, which was another thing the pharmacist couldn't blame him for.

"_Put your left arm out toward me with the palm down and hold it there until I tell you to put it down." Oh, this was going to fun. He waited for his patient to comply with his instructions before tying the tourniquet around the middle of his forearm and watching as the veins on the back of his hand started plumping up. "Do me a favor and make a fist and pump it a few times." He didn't really think that Anchors needed to do that, he didn't have much body fat and the veins in the back of his hand were prominent enough now, but he was so used to hearing the doctors he'd worked with request it that it'd become automatic. Holding the other man's hand once he was done and palpitating the veins there, he came to the conclusion that he'd been right about the dorsal medicarpal veins and selected the one that rose up to drain the pinky and ring finger for the insertion. He would normally be going a bit lower for this, but the straps would place too much pressure on the catheter he was setting up for him to want to place it that close to his wrist._

Bowman blink at himself as he looked down at his supplies and grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol, realizing that he'd forgotten to wash his hands for this and deciding that it would have to be a good enough sterilizer until he put the gloves on. Ashton didn't need to know that he was stressed enough to forget something like that and Rena's magics would guard against infection, so there wasn't any real need for concern over such a lapse in memory.

Celine knew enough about medicine to know that he'd forgotten that, but she wouldn't say anything for the same reasons. Rena had apparently noticed as well judging by the way her eyebrows drew down and she frowned at the pharmacist slightly, but she doubted the healer would mention it either. Ashton wasn't giving any indication that he realized it, but he might be assuming Bowman had done that before coming here given his personality. She would say that he needed to learn a bit about cynicism, but she was rather found of that trusting nature of his, so she wouldn't encourage such a thing.

Bowman was aware that he'd been caught, but neither of the women would say anything about it, so he was in the clear from what he could tell. The dragons had apparently switched personalities on him, Ururun was watching him with intense, wary interest while Gyoro was doing his best to ignore him from the looks of it. It was nice to know that someone was in the dark; he wasn't sure about their host, he might know or suspect something but be trying to ignore it. Either way he was done with the alcohol, so he shook his hands in the air before him slightly before he selected one of the pieces gauze and soaked it with the alcohol.

This was taking forever, Ashton hadn't realized that it would take so long. He was fairly certain that doctors and nurses tended to wash their hands before doing things like this, but he supposed that Bowman had already done it and even if he hadn't he trusted the man, his knowledge, and judgement enough to entertain the notion that he might be mistaken. It sounded like he had rubbed his hands together while they were wet for a moment and he had felt the air being fanned at his side, so he supposed he had some sort of disinfectant with him that made it unnecessary. Ururun was leaning forward enough that he almost wanted to tell the demon to pull back a little, he was having to resist the urge to shift his shoulder forward in hopes that he would relax or pull back a little and get rid of the tight, pulling sensation it was causing.

_Bowman took the now soaked gauze he held and rubbed it over the insertion site with circular movements before discarding it and selecting a fresh piece to get rid of the excess fluid. Removing a pair of gloves from their container once he was done, he put them on and grabbed one of the smaller hypodermic needles he had brought, filled it with the anesthetic and looked up at his patient. "This might sting or burn a bit." He waited for the other brunet to nod before he inserted the needle into the layers of his skin, watching the bubble it created form and withdrew it, giving it some time to take effect as he removed the tourniquet. Judging that enough time had passed, he selected on of the smaller cannulas he had brought and removed it from its wrappings; this one would be used for the saline solution and to drain Ashton of any excess blood if his external jugular was distended or otherwise more prominent than it normally was once they were done. He uncapped it and rested the edge of its needle against the vein at forty-five degree angle. "There might be a slight pinch or you might be able to feel it entering the vein. If you feel any burning or pain I need you to tell me this time." If that happened it meant that he hadn't hit the vein correctly and would need Rena to heal him before he made another attempt, at the very worst it could cause it to blow out if he really messed it up like Dias had the first time he had tried inserting his for him. He still couldn't believe it had perfect his second time around, he'd had practice on the doctors he knew and dummies nearly half a dozen times before he'd found the proper force to apply and speed to advance the cannula at while doing everything else._

_Great, now Bowman was giving him a warning again. He wouldn't have done that unless something could go wrong and he found himself hoping that Bowman knew what he was doing. He shouldn't be thinking things like that, the pharmacist had enough experience that he probably wouldn't mess up and if he did it would just be due to nerves. Not that he liked that thought, it would be just be one more piece of evidence he had that indicated to him just how badly this was affecting the older man. Nodding again he tried not wince, tense up, grimace, or give any other indication that the man's words had affected him enough to cause such a response, it was the last thing he needed to do at the moment._

_Ashton was going to need to work on ignoring and repressing more than just his libido and more intimate thoughts and emotions for that to work, he was far too expressive for something like that to go unnoticed. Bowman waited a few seconds before he guided the needle in and pushed it forward slowly, blood welling up through the clear bulb at the external end of the cannula. It looked like he had hit the vein if the flashback was any indication, so he guided it forward slightly before gently bringing the cannula down so that it was almost level with the vein and pulled the trocar out slightly, watching as the dark veinous blood became visible in the clear tubing before advancing the cannula in further and withdrawing the trocar completely, setting it aside and removing the now extraneous parts of the catheter along with it, leaving only the hub in place. "I'm going to start dressing it before I flush this with the saline, it might feel a little cold." With his luck Ashton would be the type to feel something like this, so he might as well warn him ahead of time. He removed a long, thin strip of tape from the roll on the table, cut it off and placed it underneath the catheter hub and looped it across the base before crossing the tape so that it formed a 'V' across Ashton's knuckles. Now that the cannula was secured he removed one of the clear bandages from its packaging and removed the strip that protected the sticky, adhesive side of the tegaderm and placed it over the base of the catheter before removing the paper attached to the other side and examined the back of Ashton's hand through the clear bandage to see if the cannula or vein had been disturbed by the placement. Judging that it hadn't he turned back to the table and the bag of saline solution he had used to flush and fill the IV lines that he and Dias now wore and removed the protective cap off of it before taking another syringe, inserting it into the hub at the bottom of the bag and drawing the liquid into it and removing the needle before taking the cap off the hub of the cannula and pressing the base of it into the port. "Here we go."_

_Bowman's anesthetic was terrible; he could feel every movement the man made and the way that tubbing of the cannula pinched at his skin as it was inserted or when pressure was applied. It was a good thing he hadn't given in to the insistent urge to reconnect with Gyoro and Ururun while he and Rena had been talking, this was weird and uncomfortable enough as it was. The sensation of coldness that emanated from the back of his hand and flashed halfway up his forearm as Bowman flushed catheter was almost enough to make him gasp, blink his eyes open and stare at the pharmacist despite the warning he had given him only seconds ago. As it was he managed to tone down his response to a sharp inhale and waited for the other brunet to take the syringe away and close the port. This was terrible, he was going to have two even bigger ones put in the insides of his elbows and something told him that those would be even worse._

He had a feeling that if he went ahead and told his patient he could put his arm down he would start rubbing or shaking it given that the saline had definitely registered so he wasn't going to until he had rolled the bandages over it a few times to protect and secure it further. "Alright we're done with that one. Go ahead and shake your arm out, but don't get too crazy with it." He might as well give his permission so that Rena didn't try to stop Anchors from warming his arm back up, neither him or Dias had been able to feel it so she hadn't witnessed that response yet and might think something was wrong. "You can go ahead and heal him up, Rena." She might as well do it one at a time, having the trocar removed sometimes caused the catheter to deflate or allowed it shrink and cause a bit of leakage on occasion and there no need to waste any of Ashton's blood at this point.

The pharmacist probably wouldn't have been too happy if he had known about the nosebleed he'd given himself while he was being an idiot with the dragons and Claude, then. It hadn't been that much and it had stopped easily enough, so he supposed that by now whatever he had lost then had been replaced. Thank Tria that Celine was either so used to seeing him in dark colors or liked him in them enough that she hadn't bought him anything that the blood would really show up on. He had already changed into clean boxer and sleeping pants while in the bathroom, so there wasn't any chance he would notice now. It would have been nice if he could have put a shirt or sweater on, but he had a feeling the pharmacist would have told him to take it off so he hadn't bothered. He couldn't wait for this to be over so that he could start covering himself up again; the culture of El wasn't what he would call repressed, they were actually more open and accepting of certain things, but they did tend to cover themselves more fully than the people of either Cross or Lacour just due to the cooler climate and it wasn't normal for people to be underdressed like this unless they were around family. Then again the people around him now were the closest thing he had to family anymore, so maybe it shouldn't matter. Maybe he should tell Bowman to start up again even as he shook his arm out, he was rambling at himself again and he didn't know if was from his nerves or if he was trying to fill the oppressive silence that was in his mind now that the demons' sensations, thoughts and emotions weren't there.

Celine watched the scene unfold as Rena healed Ashton and he shook his arm out, his eyes blinking open as he did so. His gaze was slightly unfocused and faraway and she almost thought he had allowed himself to sink down into himself again, but the animated way that he was shaking his arm out and frowning at the floor discredited that notion quickly enough. Knowing him and his passengers they were probably arguing over whether Gyoro could light the pharmacist's hair on fire like he used to, the red demon was certainly glaring at the man intensely enough now for it to be a possibility. She swore the dragon needed anger management classes, it was that or she would send him in for a lobotomy to see if he would calm down afterwards. That definitely wasn't a good idea and she knew it, far too many people died due to that procedure and she would much rather deal with the dragon herself than put them in danger like that.

Rena had noticed that as well and rewarded the demon for his behavior by tapping his spine and giving him a disapproving look as he turned his attention from the pharmacist to her. "Gyoro, stop being bad and apologize to Bowman."

Bowman had been actively ignoring the hard stare the Gyoro had been giving him, but he looked up just in time to see the demon's reaction to being called out as his host turned his head and scowled at him for the second time today that he was aware of. It was always fun to watch Rena snap that whip of hers at someone that wasn't him and she almost never directed it at the dragons, so he was doing his best to commit this sight to his long term memory. That and he a feeling that Anchors would make a hell of a drill sergeant if he ever figured out how to direct that apparent hardass attitude he could occasionally take with them outward at someone that wasn't the demons. Of course he might have to lose his innocent air, wait a few years to age out of that youthful appearance of his or grow his beard out and cut his hair for anyone to take him seriously, but Celine and Rena obviously weren't fans of that look on him anyway, so that last option probably wouldn't be happening.

Ashton would be in the process of locking the dragon's mind down for that given how many times they had discussed this behavior of his if they had still been mentally connected, and he found himself severely tempted to temporarily reconnect with the brothers if only to punish him until they were ready for the ritual. He didn't know how in the world he would be disciplining the demons if they survived this and they wound up in the golems, but he did know the second he was up and moving again Gyoro was going to find himself wishing he hadn't done that. He watched as the red demon shifted his attention between him, the mage, the healer, and finally the pharmacist before letting out a low growl that slowly morphed into a whine before looking to the wall and grumbling, his mind translating the meaning behind those vocalizations and coming out with actual words this time. "Gyoro says he's sorry, Bowman." The demon hadn't actually said that, hadn't even admitted that he'd done something wrong; he had asked him why he was being singled out when it was the pharmacist that was the one hurting someone, so he was definitely going to be punished later as he wasn't going to explain yet _again_ just why he shouldn't threaten people. He needed Ururun to remember to control his curiosity while he was at it, so he turned his head, made eye contact with the blue dragon and waved the hand that didn't have the catheter in it back towards his shoulders and scratched him on the neck when he moved to a position that didn't pull on his muscles. He knew that favoring one demon above the other wasn't a good or kind thing to do and that it caused friction between them, but Gyoro made it very hard for him sometimes and he was hoping that doing so openly might get something through the demon's thick skull one day.

"All's forgiven, then." The pharmacist wasn't all that confident that Gyoro had said that even though he was nodding, it seemed more likely that his host was apologizing for him given the dragon's prior body language and tone, but even if he hadn't Bowman had a feeling that he would be wishing that he had soon enough going by the expression that was still on Ashton's face. He had won this round this either way so far as he was concerned, so he was ready to move on and start inserting the large-bore catheters into the cubital fossa of the other brunet's arms. "Let's give the arm we just did a break and go for other one." He pulled the now contaminated gloves that he was wearing off and tossed them on top of the pile of trash that was accumulating on the table beside him as Ashton shifting to the side so that he could work on it easier, lifting his right arm, the palm of his hand facing upwards. Bowman was almost surprised, he had been thinking that he would need to direct him to move, but Ashton was either so angry at Gyoro that he had temporarily forgotten his manners, needed to move, or had guessed his next set of instructions and gone ahead and did it to speed things up.

It was a bit of all three at the moment. He wasn't sure if he was remembering correctly, but he was fairly certain that arteries carried blood away from the heart while veins went the other way, so it made sense that he would want the transfusions to travel that way. Besides, it was where Bowman had put the catheter when he had demonstrated for him. "Is this right?" He still didn't to watch this, the second the pharmacist started preparing him he was going to look around or at Rena and Celine, he was tired of staring at the back of his eyelids. That and he might be able to notice if Gyoro did something again if he wasn't actively trying to ignore everything.

"Yep, all you've got to do after that is make a fist," Bowman confirmed, taking a moment to move all the supplies the he would need closer to the edge of the table before placing the tourniquet and tying it around the middle part of his bicep. He wasn't going to have Ashton put on a glove and tell him to give him what he needed, so they might as well be in easy reach since he didn't want to violate his patient's personal space too much. It looked like Rena was going to be looking out for him now, she seemed to be splitting her attention between Gyoro and his host as she put her arm back around his shoulders. Anchors better appreciate the discomfort he and Dias had gone through for this, he was going to be able give him more than the usual dose of anesthetic that people were normally given thanks to their sacrifice.

He definitely appreciated it, having the cannulas inserted was an odd enough sensation to begin with and he knew he would have disliked this situation more than he already did if he had to experience it with a lesser dose. They better have dosed themselves to some degree, if they hadn't and he found out he would feel even worse than he already did. He had to wonder, though, the bottle Bowman was drawing the anesthetic from still looked full or close enough that he didn't like it. Fisting his hand, he idly wondered what type of needle it was that was attached to the new syringe the pharmacist was filling at the moment, he didn't know they came in such a small size. That just brought up another thought, one made that him hope that Rena knew how big the needle of the cannula that was going to placed in his arm was and wish that Celine wasn't in the room, he didn't think the mage would have watched Bowman and Dias get ready. "Have you seen the thing he's getting ready to put in?" He was shifting his gaze between the two women as he asked that even though he was mostly directing it at Celine. Ashton didn't know why it was taking so much for him to look at her for more than a second or two right now, he didn't think she was too angry at him if she was at all, but something about the way she was carrying herself made him feel uncertain.

_Oh dear Tria, what was Bowman getting ready to do to him?_ Celine cut her eyes to Bowman's back, wondering just what it was that he had apparently forgotten to warn her about. Rena was nodding, she could see that from the corner of her eye, so she appeared the only one in the dark about this. "I'm afraid I haven't, no." It didn't look as though her ex-fiancé had been planning to inform her or had only just realized he had forgotten to tell her judging by the way he froze suddenly.

Anchors just had to ask the girls that, didn't he? Bowman compressed the syringe to get the air bubbles out and wondered to himself just what he could compare it with to give the mage an idea of what to expect. It wasn't as though he didn't have extras left over and he'd shown Rena one rather than explain it, so one of those would work. He recapped the syringe and set it down before looking inside the medical bag and removing one of them. Hopefully she didn't get wound up when she saw the size of it, it was the largest he felt he could safely insert in the veins he had considered to be viable candidates.

Ashton had a reference point for this that would give her a very, very clear mental picture of the estimated circumference of the tubing and trocar, though he hated using the example given what it might remind her of. He hoped he didn't blush or stutter when he said this, it might just make both of them uncomfortable and he'd rather Rena, Bowman, and everyone else didn't know or have an idea as to what had happened between them earlier. Tria, he still could believe he had done that. "It's about as wide around as the shaft of the second smallest cresting blade." He almost couldn't believe his face didn't feel warm now, maybe he should just stay angry at Gyoro for the rest of his life, that had to be it, there was nothing else he could pinpoint that would explain it. The pharmacist was removing something from its packaging, so he must have extras or wasn't worried about contaminating the one he was unwrapping for some other reason.

Celine blinked at the reminder, stunned that he was able to reference such a thing when there was company about without blushing, though she supposed he might still be trying to focus himself on Gyoro and his recent behavior. She almost found herself wanting to smile at him again for some reason despite the memories that his description was invoking, perhaps because he had finally brought himself to look at her fully in the eyes again. Still, she couldn't believe something with such a large circumference was going to be inserted into him, and she shifted to gaze to Bowman as he turned and held the cannula up for her to see. Widening her eyes for a second, she took in size of the tube itself and the sharpness of its beveled edge before shaking her head minutely in disbelief. "Something that big is safe?"

"Perfectly fine. It's the same size as what Dias and I have in our arms." Never mind whatever reference might have just flown over his head, Bowman was amazed that his patient's face wasn't the color of an overripe tomato from saying the word _'shaft.'_ Maybe he had been wrong about Anchors all along; he might just drag him, Claude and Dias out to go girl watching with him when they were stuck in Tenue waiting on the next ship out to see if they could get him to be one the guys with them without the dragons on his back. Even if he just stood there and acted like he wasn't looking like Dias did he would still consider it a success so long as his head didn't explode from him and Claude making comments to each other.

Bowman was being perverted again, Rena could tell that just from the smile he was trying to keep off his face. It took her a second, her mind examining what had been said in the past few moments, blushing lightly, tightening her arm around Ashton's shoulders and shaking her head at him once she realized just what had gotten him started. If he did execute the plan he was forming he better make sure he stationed them somewhere that she wouldn't run into them, she had been offended enough when she had come across him and Claude doing it in Cross and they called her _'a ten'_ as if she couldn't hear them as she was walking away.

Celine hadn't even needed to rethink the past few turns of their current discussion, she knew _exactly_ what had made the made the man's eyes light up and his lips twitch as he showed off the catheter. She frowned and narrowed his eyes at him, hoping that Ashton thought her expression was due to skepticism and didn't look up at the older man beside him. Really, he best not be planning to corrupt him too much, she was looking forward to doing a bit of that herself and she would already be in competition with Claude. The mage wasn't sure how inexperienced the heraldic swordsman was anymore; the way he had moved his hands and kissed her hadn't been awkward despite the shyness of it, so she would assume that he had done that once or twice before at the very least.

If Ashton had heard Celine's speculation he would have died right there in the kitchen. The current situation was bad enough as it was as he looked between the two women and then up at Bowman and saw the expression he was trying to hide as he turned and put the cannula in the trash pile that was forming. That wasn't good, the pharmacist only got that look when something that could be dirty or sexual came up. He didn't know what it could have be–Oh. He should have come up with a different word, apparently. The hand with the cannula in it flew up to rub at his face and try to hide his expression and the slight blush that was forming as his choice of words and the way Bowman had taken that registered, feeling Ururun curl down around his side as he asked him why everyone was reacting the way they were. "I-it's nothing, Ururun." There really wasn't any need to be embarrassed this time, it wasn't as though it was his fault the pharmacist had chosen to take his words that way, so he pulled his hand away and frowned at the dragon before him when he saw the disbelieving look in the dragon's eyes. "I'll tell you later, okay?" He guessed he might as well teach them some slang and vulgar language that he didn't normally use before they picked it up from someone else and he'd be able stress at the same time just how _rarely_ they should ever use those words around him, the women and youngest member of their group and women and children in general, or anyone else while he was at it.

The pharmacist wasn't going to say anything that wasn't related to the catheters for a few minutes if only to give Celine and Rena some time to calm down. He was going to have to get together with Claude later and start making plans, Anchors definitely had potential if that was all the blushing and stuttering he was going to do in response to that one. Rena could babysit the demons assuming she still doted on them the way she did now once they were full time Ashton impersonators. Rubbing his hands with a bit more of the rubbing alcohol, he studied the veins and palpitated them once his hands were dry. He needed to get this one over with fairly quickly, he'd wasted enough time showing off the catheter and the tourniquet didn't need to be restricting his patient's blood flow for more than a minute or two at most. "We're going to do this one right here." He tapped at skin beside the cephalic vein, nodded to himself and turned to grab the alcohol and gauze. "I'm going to numb the area around it as best I can, be you'll probably still feel it if you felt me putting in the last one. I still need you to tell me if it's painful." The tourniquet might as well come off for a second while he numbed the area around it, It had been at least a minute, maybe two already.

"Right, I'll tell you." He had already gathered that but he still appreciated the warning. Not that he would while Bowman was putting it in, but that was just his nerves acting up and he would rather be testy than crying considering he'd done enough of the latter already and was well practiced at keeping those type of thoughts to himself. The pharmacist was sterilizing the inside of his elbow now, so it was time for him to start looking away again. He still didn't like how any of them looked; it was easy to see how stressed they were, but at least it looked like Celine had managed to get some rest along with Rena. If they were alone he would ask her about it and maybe even whether she had asked Bowman to compound something for her like Rena had, but he was dreading the answer to that question already.

_Bowman uncapped the syringe with the anesthetic in it, watching the veins deflate and waiting for them to go back to normal. He probably should have dove on in and continued the insertion without taking the tourniquet off, but he wanted the placement of Ashton's catheters to be as uneventful as he could manage and with the vein engorged the way it had been he might have hit it while injecting the numbing agent. Judging that the cephalic vein had drained to the point that it would be easy enough to work around but still plainly visible, Bowman took hold of the forearm before him and pulled the skin taunt with his thumb before he inserted the needle of the syringe and injected half a milliliter of the anesthetic before withdrawing it slightly, turning it, and making another injection. He was going to wind up using the entire contents of the syringe on this side of the vein and would be doing the same thing to other side once he was done._

_The pharmacist must be using a higher grade of anesthetic, he hadn't felt the last one at all but now it almost felt like the man was had attached a lit match to the end of the needle. He wished he would take it all way out when he moved it, it wasn't painful but he could feel it moving underneath his skin. "Uh, how badly is this supposed to burn?" If Rena wasn't holding on to him and Celine wasn't watching his face so intently he'd let himself grimace or even say 'ow' at this point, but he didn't want to agitate them more than he already had._

_Bowman repositioned the needle for the last dose to be administered and looked up at him. "Pretty bad from my experience. It's more powerful than what I used last time, so that's why. To me it always feels like it's burning in those spots. Does it feel like that or does it feel different or worse? Is it moving?" If it felt worse or the sensation was shooting up his arm he was going to stop just to see if something had gone wrong somehow, there weren't any signs of it from what he could see but Rena would need to start casting if he was having an allergic reaction or he had pierced the vein without noticing it._

"_No, it's not moving. It basically feels just like you said." Ashton almost wanted to laugh at that to try to relieve some of the tension he felt, he might have even done it if Celine wasn't looking so concerned now and Rena wasn't tightening her arm around him. "I'm fine, I guess I just wasn't expecting it." He shouldn't have said anything, he had a feeling that if either of the women in the room started tearing up or even looking like they might he would break down again and he didn't want anyone to see that, he'd come close enough to it earlier with Celine and Claude. Maybe he should be focusing himself on Bowman and what he was doing, it would be harder to watch in its own way but at least he wouldn't have to worry about that until it was time to head to the ceremonial chamber._

_The pharmacist nodded at that and looked up at Rena as best he could without moving his head. The Nedian looked a little worried, but he was more concerned about Celine at this point as he couldn't see her unless he turned around again and he wasn't going to do that as it would be too obvious. Finishing up the injection, he withdrew the syringe and removed the hypodermic needle from it before attaching a new one and refilling it, looking over his shoulder at the mage as he did so. It didn't look like she had taken that exchange well going by the way she was holding herself and leaning against the entryway, but she didn't seem to be unstable in the least, so he turned his attention back to what he was doing and removed the excess air in the syringe again. "I'm going to do the same thing on the other side of the vein now."_

Ururun was too caught up in his curiosity again, so he shifted his shoulder back slightly and looked up at Gyoro to make sure he was still behaving himself as his brother moved back to a less awkward position. He was fairly certain now that the demons couldn't feel what he felt anymore or if they did it was muted enough that they could ignore it; Gyoro's glaring at the pharmacist had given him pause for a moment, but neither of them were tensing or giving any indication that they were feeling this through him as Bowman started injecting him with the second dose. It was unfortunate for the red demon that he wasn't responding in a way that showed he could, Ashton hated disciplining them despite how often he did it and if he had detected any pain or discomfort coming from either of them he would have seriously considered lessening whatever punishment Gyoro would be facing when he woke up since it would have shown that he had restrained himself from attacking Bowman out of instinct again. Maybe if Gyoro was lucky he would forget this, but if that happened he better never, _ever_ get that memory back or have it mentioned to him because the second he was told about it or remembered he would punish him.

_Bowman reapplied the tourniquet and opened the wrapping of the fourteen gauge catheter before putting a fresh pair of sterile gloves on and removing it from its wrappings. "I need you to keep you arm straight as you can now. If you can lock your elbow and keep it that way while I'm working it might make this easier." He watched his patient turn his attention back to him, extended his right arm and make brief eye contact with him before his gaze dropped down to the arm he was holding out. The pharmacist had a feeling he knew how Ashton had gotten over of his case of selective trypanophobia so quickly. He wouldn't want to see Celine's reaction to this either, especially if something went wrong and Ashton proved to be a gusher. Considering the vein he was hitting and apparent fitness level of his patient's cardiovascular system it wasn't outside the realm of possibility._

_Ashton hoped that his judgement was better now than it had been earlier today; he didn't feel like having another breakdown and watching this was probably one of the top five things most likely to make him do that, right along with hearing or seeing any of them cry or almost cry, entering the ceremonial chamber again and sitting in the chair, having Bowman cut him, and reciting the incantation. Tria, he hoped none of them cried or at least did it quietly enough that he wouldn't notice, he had a feeling that unless Bowman told him to keep his eyes open he would be shutting them as tightly as he could throughout the whole thing. He almost wanted to do that now as the pharmacist released the tourniquet and then pulled his skin taut with one hand before placing the beveled edge against the vein he was going to hit with the other, but he couldn't feel the cold tip of it against his skin and by the time that thought had occurred to him Bowman was slowly inserting it into him and he stuck staring as it disappeared into his flesh without even the faintest pinching sensation. Recovering enough to blink just in time to see his blood begin to well up in the chamber of the catheter, he briefly entertained the notion that the anesthetic Bowman was using this time was the best substance on the planet before he advanced it slightly and brought it level to his arm and he started feeling it. Inhaling deeply, he restrained himself from making any other noises or pulling his arm away, fighting the urge to just move and vibrate his leg or something for fear that the movement would travel up his arm and disturb the pharmacist. At least Bowman was pausing to pull the 'trocar' or whatever it was called out, even if it did make the dark blood visible in the tubing that wasn't yet inside his vein, but then he shifted his grip on the cannula slightly and started pushing the front chamber away from the main body of it with his index finger, pushing the catheter even deeper into the vein with it and that odd, painful sensation stated up again; part pressure, part pain, part pinch, but mostly scratch in a place that definitely wasn't used to it. He really wanted to ask Bowman if it was supposed to feel like that, but it wasn't painful enough to warrant saying anything, it was just incredibly uncomfortable, strange and foreign._

_Bowman looked up from his work to check the other brunet's facial expression to see if he was any pain, but just found a disturbed look on his face. "Does it hurt?" If Ururun moved any closer he would be tempted to either say something to his host or swat at the air between them, the demon was starting to block the light and he needed that to see what he was doing. Rena had apparently just noticed the way he had been glancing at the dragon as he worked judging by the way she frowned and tapped the demon on his spine the same way she had his brother a few minutes ago and motioned for him to move back when he turned his head to look at her._

"_A little. It's mostly just–I don't know, scratchy." That was the oddest thing to him, at least. He blinked down at the interior of his elbow again as he noticed the shadows shifting on his arm and looked up as he felt Ururun move back to where he had been last time he had looked at him and shook his head at the dragon. Gyoro seemed to have learned his lesson for now, he was staring resolutely at the wall just like he had been before he turned his attention to his brother, so he guessed they were taking turns trying to see who could drive him up the wall the quickest. If that was the case it was a pointless competition, all they would have to do is ask him and he would openly admit that Gyoro had somehow discovered ways to vex and disturb him that no other being on the planet had ever come across before._

_Bowman nodded and looked back down at that and continued the insertion. Considering that the catheter he was now inserting was a gauge most often used in resuscitation settings and the relative size of it to the vein he was using he wasn't surprised by that at all. "That's normal, don't worry about it." Well, the pharmacist thought it was normal; he and Dias had dosed themselves so poorly that it had been more painful than anything and most of the people he had ever put these in had either been unconscious or given much better local anesthetics than he had been able to acquire. Rena's powers would soothe and heal any irritation the catheter insertion was causing the inside of the vein, though, so unless Ashton's luck started affecting him and he somehow managed to tear through the vein without the trocar being present before he finished they should be in the clear. Once the catheter was inserted fully, he turned his attention to securing it, taping it in place and bandaging it with another tegaderm. He wasn't going to bother setting up the external tubing of the catheter, he had already placed those components on the end of the lines that he and Dias wore to minimize the chances of Anchors pulling on them while he situated himself in the chair. Hooking his patient up once they had decided to start working on him might be a bit messy thanks to the saline escaping, but Bowman was hoping that the natural forces pulling their blood through the tubing and Ashton's desanguinated state would allow the transfusions to go smoothly without them having to stand or hold their arms up to force gravity to do its job. "I'm going to flush it again. I don't want you to bend your elbow unless you have to anymore, so try not to move them too much if you want to shake it out once I'm done with the dressing." The catheters were long enough that they traveled through the bend of his elbow and Ashton would definitely feel it if he moved or bent that arm too much now._

_He couldn't suppress a flinch as the pharmacist flushed the catheter out, but at least the vein was now large enough that the coolness of the fluid didn't travel quite as far as it had before. Watching the chamber of the catheter shift from being stained almost black from his blood to bright red, pink, and then clear again as the solution Bowman was flushing it with forced the blood that had traveled there during the insertion back into the vein was interesting enough that Ururun was forgetting himself again._

"Ururun, get back." Ashton swore they hadn't been this bad about moving themselves since the first or second day after they had possessed him, it was enough to make him ask someone to blindfold the demon until they were done. Actually, that might not be a bad idea; if Ururun was this curious about the preparation he would probably be even worse while Bowman was cutting him, and he was already dangerously close to pulling one of his back muscles again going by the burning, stretching sensation the demon had been causing before he relaxed himself. "You're not allowed to watch this anymore, so turn your head the other way and look at Rena. If I feel you move again or she tells me you're not looking at her I'm going to have someone blindfold you." He would ask Bowman do it first, the man would probably enjoy it and it looked like there was plenty of gauze and other bandaging materials left over.

Bowman would indeed enjoy that. He'd like the idea even better if it was Gyoro he could do that to, the pharmacist didn't have much of a problem with the ice dragon but he still wasn't fond enough of him that he would balk at the idea. Not bothering to hide his grin as his patient looked back up at him questioningly, Bowman nodded, removed the syringe and recapped the port of the catheter before grabbing a roll of bandages and winding them over Ashton's elbow. He almost hoped that Ururun looked back now, his host had apparently nominated him for the duty and he would fulfill the task with gusto if Anchors gave him the slightest indication that he was going to tell him to do it.

Encouraging Bowman was the last thing that Ashton should be doing at the moment as far as Celine was concerned, but she had to admit that she was relieved to see that assertive side of him come out again even if it was solely from stress and directed at the demon. The mage shook her head at the dragon as he turned his head quickly and blinked at her, apparently hoping that she would say something to persuade his host from his current actions. "You heard him Ururun, look at Rena before you get in trouble again." The Nedian best not budge on this, she was far too lenient with the demons most of the time and it wouldn't be a good idea to undermine Ashton's authority just as they were about to become independent of him.

Rena stared down at Ashton in disbelief and looked up at Celine's words just in time to meet Ururun's pleading gaze. She definitely wasn't going to be able to tattle on the dragon and might just ask Ashton to reconsider if she looked him in the eyes for too long, so she turned her attention back to his host and healed him as Bowman asked her to and the younger brunet attempted to shake his arm out without moving it too much. Ururun better not try to meet her gaze anymore, Rena was well aware that both the dragons knew exactly how to get their way with her and used that ability far too often to guilt trip or win arguments with their host. If Ururun did she might just tell on him for that, though Celine would probably beat her to it if she saw her hesitating too much as she was much less forgiving of the demons when properly provoked.

He felt like an idiot just sitting here and flapping his arm at his side like he was a one-winged bird or something, so he gave up on heating his arm back up and looked to the pharmacist, ignoring the way he could feel the catheter moving as he started to bend his elbow as he wound down. "Do I need to move again or am I fine like this?" Neither dragon needed a chance to start behaving badly again and even if it meant that the ritual would be happening sooner he wanted to get the last catheter done just so he could move again. Ashton figured that if worse came to worst and the others weren't done moving the clay yet he could just stay here in the kitchen and wear a groove in the floor as he paced back and forth.

It looked like someone was ready to get this over with. "You can stay there, just remember to keep that arm straight now." Bowman was severely tempted to tell him to drain the rest of the glass by his side while he still had one fully functional arm, but he didn't need to be stressing his patient more than he already was. Taking the gloves he wore off as Ashton lifted the arm he was going to work on, the pharmacist considered the placement of the equipment on the table and decided to rearrange them a bit before he applied the tourniquet and washed his hands with the alcohol again before grabbing a strip of gauze.

Ashton didn't want to watch this again as doing that might encourage Ururun, but he couldn't close his eyes and try to tune everything out or Gyoro might start glaring at the pharmacist again, so he cast his eyes about the room before shaking his head at himself. He wanted to talk to Celine if only to try to gauge if she was doing well and whether she was angry at him and just doing her best to hide it from him, but Bowman and Rena were here. That didn't make sense when he really thought about it, though; knowing them they had been just as involved as Claude had been in the conspiracy he'd been unaware of until two days ago and he wasn't going to reference anything that intimate while they were here. "You look well. Did you finally get some rest?"_ Or did Bowman drug you like he did me and Rena?_ He really, _really _hoped the pharmacist hadn't, he didn't how he would react to that information at the moment.

There he went surprising her again. He needed to stop doing that until the ritual was over or they were alone at the very least, Celine hadn't been prepared to speak directly to him while they were with the others. "I did, thank you. You're looking quite a bit better yourself." The healer, the pharmacist, and the dragons best behave themselves while they were talking; Gyoro and Ururun had misbehaved enough already and she didn't want to see any indication that Claude had told someone his all too apparent presumptions of what had occurred earlier.

Rena tightened her arm around Ashton's shoulder and looked past Ururun to Bowman and smiled as he looked up from what he was doing to wiggle his eyebrows at her quickly before looking back down. She hoped Celine hadn't caught that, she knew Ashton hadn't since he hadn't tensed up and was still looking past Bowman's side to the mage. She was going to need to leave the room as soon she was done healing Ashton, it looked like he was working himself up to apologizing and he'd be less awkward about it if they weren't here.

He hoped that Rena didn't know what had happened earlier, he didn't know why else she would have hugged him like that other than maybe–Oh, there was the pinch and burn, she must have been warning him about Bowman putting the anesthetic in. "Rena made me get cleaned up." It was a good thing she had, he would have been kicking himself now for not washing and changing into clean clothing considering how close Bowman was and the way she'd been hanging on him since he'd gotten out of the bathroom.

"Made you?" Celine was going to get the two of them if they didn't learn to be less obvious; she didn't much care if Ashton was ignoring them at the moment, it was enough that she had seen their little exchange." Don't tell me we're going to have to send you away for training, I thought you were the one we didn't have to worry about." She may as well tease him a bit, it would reassure him and allow her to release some stress at the same time.

That was a relief. Celine didn't tease him like this when she was really angry at him, so if she was at all it would be easy enough to deal with, even if he did hate it when she was mad at him to any degree and he knew it. "...If I say yes does that mean I'll get a free vacation?" It was too bad they weren't alone, he would have teased her back more directly and asked if that meant he would need to find lodging somewhere other than Mars after this was over. He might have to do something like that anyway, Celine and her parents didn't need to deal with Gyoro and Ururun like that, they might drive the three of them crazy. Maybe they could stay in that shack in the forest for the winter, he'd have to ask the mayor if they could work something out.

"I'm already going to be sending you books, now you want a _vacation?_" Bowman didn't really care what he was interrupting or that he knew that the taller brunet was joking, he was going to say something to that either way.

"No, I'm going to take him home and retrain him and if he doesn't stop being such a slob." She might as well get that announcement out of the way and Celine needed to know that she was planning to kidnap him for a while if he didn't shape up. Claude would like that, it could be Ashton's birthday present to him.

Rena was going to have a fight on her hands, her mother was looking forward to having a live-in cook and housekeeper for the winter and relaxing for the season. That was what she would tell her, anyway. Their little deal would be common knowledge if she did say that, so she would save it and only bring that up if the younger woman didn't budge. "Bowman's right, you've been spoiled enough already. Rena, darling, are you sure you'd be able to stand having them alone together constantly like that? Knowing them they'll run away and elope and then we'll never see them again."

At least Bowman though that was funny; funny enough lean back and laugh briefly, the catheter in his hand flashing in the corner of Ashton's vision. "W-we–Oh, come on, we're not that bad." Celine just had to make him stutter, didn't she? He was too used to those jokes to blush anymore, so he supposed he could be thankful for that.

Bowman calmed himself down and got back to work, pulling the skin taut and repositioning the cannula over the vein. "Yeah you are. Hold still while I put this in."

Rena smiled and hugged Ashton tighter as she felt him tense up while the cannula was inserted and restrained herself from patting him on the shoulder or head. "I trust them. Besides, I can always chain him to one of the beds in the guest room and lock the door to keep Claude out." Opera really was a bad influence, she had been the one that started the whole thing and Bowman had only made it worse once he had joined their group and picked up on it. Not that Ashton or Claude had done anything to discourage them; the blond had gotten in on the joke instantly and had even gone through a brief spell of calling the brunet his 'boyfriend' in front of everyone and the brunet's blushing, stuttering, and eventual laughter hadn't deterred their teasing _at all_.

Celine was thankful that Bowman was focusing himself on his work again, if he had seen the expression that had flashed across the other brunet's face briefly at the notion of being tied to a bed by a woman she wasn't quite sure what the pharmacist would had done or said. He was facing away from Rena, so there wasn't any danger there from what she could see. Teasing him had been a very bad idea, she should have known better and kept the discussion serious; it had turned her thoughts in a direction that was completely inappropriate given the situation. Really, the last thing she needed to be considering at the moment were her recollections of the slots in the headboards of the beds in the guest room and her bedroom back in Mars and….Oh, my. Ashton might just be surprising her again once all this was over, it looked to her as though he was having similar thoughts.

"Ah, I-I don't think you'll need to do that." Ashton couldn't help it, he had tried to wipe the look of his face as quickly as he could but apparently Celine had still caught it. He was going to get Claude back for leaving them alone and crushing all of those safe, comforting delusions he used to have, if it wasn't for Rena hugging him and the sensation of the catheter being placed he would be very uncomfortable now; the mage was looking at him with an expression on her face that told him that she thinking some very bad thoughts at the moment. Not that he wasn't too, but at least everything else going on around him was keeping him from focusing on them too much. Time for an abrupt subject change, even with his luck this should suck all the levity out of the room. "Are they done moving the clay or are we going to need to help them?"

He must have missed something, Bowman had been under the impression that everyone was trying to avoid mentioning anything directly related to the ritual. The pharmacist frowned at the catheter and almost raised his head to look at the younger brunet before deciding that he didn't want to know and continuing the insertion. "They should be done by now, but I'll check before I come and get you." Well, the catheter was inserted, time to secure it again and work on the dressing. "I'm going finish this up and then I'll go take a look-see. Rena, there might still be something in Precis' room so can you check on that once you heal him?"

The Nedian nodded as she stared down at the crown of Ashton's head, not bothering to reply out loud as the pharmacist looked at her. It was pretty obvious something had just passed between the mage and the heraldic swordsman from how quickly he had shifted his head to look back to Bowman when he said that, and she was doing her best to not look over at the older woman or think too much about what that might have been because she had a feeling it had been derived from her last comment and she definitely didn't need to be thinking of the two of them like that. Maybe they hadn't fought and she needed to stay and supervise the two of them, it was that or Ashton had just admitted to himself how he felt and if that was the case she needed to leave them alone after all. She guessed that she would leave when it was time for her to; Celine was assertive to the point of being pushy especially once she had set herself on something but Ashton had always managed to stand up to her even in the beginning, so if something happened it would be mutual at the very least. Rena hoped they wouldn't be too noisy, the last thing she needed was to hear that or for them to start giving Claude ideas while Dias was around.

She didn't much care for the way the younger woman was studying Ashton at the moment, it looked to her as though she had realized what had led him to change the subject so quickly. It wasn't an expression that she had ever seen on the healer, but she was familiar enough with it given how often she and Ashton had exchanged that look whenever Rena and Claude had seemed to finally realize what was going on between them only to watch as they did an abrupt about-face moments later. He best not try to pull that on her once they were left alone or after he woke up, it was a bit too late for that and they were both adults.

That wasn't going to happen unless he suffered some serious memory loss despite how unsure he was about how to approach her and this new aspect of their relationship, especially since he had hit her over the head with it the last time he had been alone with her. If he hadn't known better he would say that Bowman suspected something just from the way he was avoiding meeting his eyes or looking over at Celine as he finished the bandages and nodded at Rena. There wasn't any real need to worry about it, he supposed; all of them but Precis had known about this since their moment in the hallway, though he did have to wonder about just how long Dias had known about it since he had apparently been the first according to Claude.

He wasn't going to bother with cleaning up the spent supplies right now, he'd get them after they had stabilized his patient. Sorting through his medical bag, he removed everything he wouldn't need now that the preparation was done; Precis was going to be in charge of the bag and handing him what he needed, so he might as well get all the extra or useless things out of her way before he handed it off to her. "I've got one last question for you."

Bowman better not be getting ready to ask him for a living will or something, that would probably be more than he could handle. He hoped it wasn't something like that, Rena was tightening her hands on him for some reason. "Okay." Depending on what the pharmacist was getting ready to ask he might not want to be looking at anyone given how Rena was already reacting and the way Celine was holding herself and frowning at the pharmacist, so he decided to lower his head and close his eyes for this.

There wasn't any need for that, they were already going to do everything thing they could and Ashton's nerves indicated quite plainly just how badly he didn't want to die. "That anesthetic I just used on you was the best I could get. I've got a couple bottles of it left to take care of the incisions, but I want to know if you want to bother with it now that you've seen how powerful it is." Rena had been done healing him the second she had started casting, but looked like she was going to keep doing it until someone told her to stop. Maybe he should have waited for her to move away from him or leave the room completely.

The pharmacist had a very strange definition of powerful if that was the case. "No, just–Just don't worry about it. I guess I should try not to tense up too much, is that right?"

"You need to try to stay relaxed through it, yeah." He was surprised Ashton had been capable of thinking that far ahead, let alone asking that question out loud, especially in front of Celine and Rena. The blue-haired young woman needed to stop wasting her energy, so he looked at her and shook his head once she meet his eyes, relieved when she took her hands away, however reluctantly. They were really going to have to watch her even with the sedative he had given her judging by how stiffly she moved her hands away and how tight her face was at the moment. He almost wanted to check on Celine too, but he didn't know how she would react to that given the current discussion. Either way they needed to leave and give Ashton some time to stabilize himself again; he definitely wouldn't be able to do that with either him or Rena around, but he wasn't sure about Celine so he'd leave that call up to her.

"I'll try, um…." He really wanted to thank all of them again, tell them just how much he loved them, how much he hated doing this to them, and maybe even apologize for not being able to change the demons' minds about this and being unable to take back control when both of them were actively suppressing his psyche at the same time and not letting him sleep like they had been before they let him takeover again, but doing any of that would lead to things that didn't need to happen at the moment. He sighed and breathed deeply and slowly, trying to relax himself as Bowman patted him on the shoulder and told him he'd be back soon, picked up the bag beside him and moved away from him, Rena following him after a moment. Ashton wasn't sure if Celine was still in the room, she wasn't wearing the high heels she normally wore due to the season, so if she had been quiet about it she might have snuck out without him noticing.

She hadn't, of course. Celine was going to give him a moment to calm himself again before she made her presence known and hope that he didn't start crying if he thought that he was alone. At least Bowman had been able to get Rena to follow him easily enough by motioning at her, the younger woman needed to stay as calm and in control of herself as she could and the mage doubted that would have been possible if she had remained in Ashton's presence given they way he had abruptly started to lose his grip on himself. The dragons were watching her, Gyoro quite intently while Ururun looked between his host and her repeatedly before cocking his head and making an inquisitive noise, and she found herself praying that the demon hadn't told him she was still here before he had composed himself enough to handle her presence.

Well, at least he knew that Celine was still room now, Ururun wasn't the type to make things up so she had to be there. "...I don't know." Why she was just standing there, that is. He had a theory, but he wasn't going to tell him she was probably trying to give him some time to calm down out loud. Ashton had never realized just how convenient having the two of them in his head had been before. He was going to have teach them to hold their comments and questions until they were alone or in a private place if they made it through this; they tended to skirt the edge of indecency at times or involved things that he would rather not be voiced in public. "Do you need help getting the blankets or have you taken care of that already?" If he was going to get up and move he might as well be doing something productive while he did it. He definitely wasn't going to be sitting anymore until he had too, he'd be doing enough of that soon enough.

Someone must have told him about that earlier, they had avoided discussing anything related to the ritual last night once they had decided on a time for the crests to be completed. "I did. We can still go for a bit of a walk if you want to, though." He looked as though he needed to move even as he made to stand, there was something to the way he held himself that gave her the impression that he didn't want to stay stationary much longer. "Not far, of course. Just pacing the hallway a bit, something like that."

"I…yeah, let's." He'd really rather run at the moment. Not away from her or outside the temple or away or anything like that, but just to run and feel active again. Besides, the dragons would team up to stop him if they suspected that he was trying to get away somehow, so there wasn't any point to it. "Can I ask you something?" There were so many question he wanted to ask her now, but the only thing he felt comfortable quizzing her about at the moment was whether Bowman had given her something or not. Just so he could go ahead and calm himself down if the older brunet had.

He best not be getting ready to ask her what she saw in him, she really would become angry at him if he did. She would have to deal with that question one day knowing him, but she was far too worried and anxious at the moment to ask him the same thing in return or even start in on the various qualities he possessed that she was fond of. "As if you ever have to ask that, really now." Smiling gently as he joined her by the entryway, she wrapped her arms around his and leaned into him slightly before leading him out into the hall. It was about time she allowed herself to start doing these things, she had spent far too much time holding herself back and watching Rena hang off him to not take the opportunity presented to her at the moment.

"Um." Great, now he was blinking at himself again. Still, this was...so many things that he couldn't describe now that he knew what was going on, that he could admit why this felt so different from what it was like when Rena did it and why it felt the way it did. Besides the obvious. He hoped the dragons didn't do something again. Actually, he should probably be hoping that _he_ didn't do something again. "Did Bowman make you something? To help you sleep or calm you down?"

She pursed her lip and drew down her eyebrows at that as she studied him, not knowing where that had come from and wondering what could have given him such a worry. "Calm…? Oh dear Tria, don't tell me Rena told you about that." Celine shook her head at that, because really, the younger woman should have known better than to tell him such a thing. Now he was probably going to be checking them as best he could for signs of sedation. "He didn't make me anything, I took my nap while the rest of them were working on the clay and watched it for them once they were done." It hadn't been a particularly peaceful series of naps and she had gone right back to it once she realized that Bowman, Dias, and Precis weren't going to be locking themselves in their rooms and resting like Claude and Rena had, but they had done their job well enough.

He had been holding his breath to keep from doing or saying anything until she had finished that last sentence, and once the meaning of it registered fully he had to restrain himself from exhaling explosively in relief like he wanted. "I was–You have no idea how much I was worried about that. The second she told me I just–I mean, I felt bad enough knowing I'd done to that to her, but once I thought about you it just…." Made him seriously consider tracking down the pharmacist and interrogating him. He had almost done it too, probably would have if it hadn't occurred to him in the bathroom while he was undressed and Rena was guarding the door. He didn't know why that had been his first reaction, it was obvious enough that the two of them loved each other and were very close friends due to their history together and he _knew_ that the pharmacist wouldn't do anything that would hurt her, but something about that had enraged him once that thought came to him. It had probably been anger at himself more than anything; he felt horrible enough about Rena but doing that to her would have been overwhelming considering everything that he'd already put her through.

She hugged his arm and kissed him on the shoulder for that, partially to soothe him but also out of pure affection. It was little things like this that let her know how he felt now that she could see them from a different angle, these worries and admissions of his and the way he could admit to things so openly with her that she knew he would have difficulty discussing with even Claude or Rena. Part of that was that they both held beliefs and understandings of certain things, but it was also just that need to share with each other and be close in some way given how the dragons bothered her, the way she had grown used to holding herself back out of respect for the crush that he'd had on Precis, the innocent way he held himself, and how he seemed to have become convinced that he couldn't be physically close to people after being possessed. That last one brought up something that she was curious about herself, and while she hadn't been expecting to broach that subject for at least a few more days she supposed that she could start pushing him a bit more openly now and make plain her intentions to him on the off chance he still had doubts about her interest. "I have a question of my own at the moment."

Uh-oh. Maybe he shouldn't have turned his head to look at her when she kissed him like that as they walked, the smile that had formed before she said that and way she was looking at him now gave him the feeling that this was going to be something a bit more intimate than he was used to, never mind all the other responses he had to it. "Alright." It had taken him a few seconds to respond to that and it had come with a nervous chuckle, but at least he had gotten it out.

It looked as though he suspected something, but she wasn't going to back off now that she had dedicated herself to the question. She briefly entertained the notion that she might be about to make him faint, well aware that it he wasn't given to it despite all the teasing and jokes that were made about it but unable to help herself. "Have you ever been with someone before?"

Well, now he was blushing again. He hoped this didn't scare her off, she seemed worldly enough that she might not be pleased with the information. "Not...in the way you probably mean. I've never really had what I would consider a girlfriend since my luck and everything else would run them off before we got very far and…." He wasn't going to lower himself to going to a brothel or hiring a lady of the evening off the streets. Even before the dragons had come along and created even more issues and barriers for him he had still had enough pride not to do _that._

This was going to be fun. Really, Celine had no idea why that appealed to her so much. She didn't much like that look on his face or how hesitantly he spoke, he seemed to think that she was going think less of him for some bizarre reason. "You know, I had thought that, but then a little something that happened earlier today made me wonder."

She wasn't going to jostle him a bit like Rena would to assure him, but she would kiss his shoulder again and smile at that blush of his. "It's no bother, really, it was just curiosity."

"Um…." She was giving him that smile again, and he suddenly had a feeing that he going to be getting in over his head with her. Not that that was a new revelation, she tended push him ways that left him feeling overwhelmed on a regular basis and forced him to adapt. At least now he knew why he had never minded it and even enjoyed it once he got past the initial discomfort. "I guess I should apologize for that. I wasn't thinking and…."

Whether he had been thinking or not was open to debate; she had feeling that he had been, just not with his brain. "There's no need for that, darling." She might as well admit it to him, it would make him feel much better about it once he got over the shock of it. "I would have done it you hadn't. Besides, I enjoy it when you surprise me." Even if it did leave her wondering whether she would be able stand watching the ritual now that they were acknowledging this.

Well, that was…. "Ah, okay." He was definitely getting in over his head here. Looking over his shoulders for a second as he processed that, he found both the demons on his back ignoring them as best they could. It was just his luck that the second he wouldn't mind the two of them misbehaving somehow if only to correct them and distract himself they would decide to mind their manners. He found himself wanting to tell her now, if only so she knew if something happened to him but he couldn't get the words out. There were still the letters, though, so if something happened to him she'd at least have that and she didn't deserve to have it as a surprise. "I want to tell you something." He needed to work himself up to this, he couldn't just say it.

She just knew she wouldn't be able to stand it he was about to do what she thought he was going to do. "Ashton, don't. Please, I know and…maybe it's selfish of me, I'm well aware that I'm a selfish person, but I don't want it to be like this."

He hadn't been expecting that response at all. "No–It's–I–It's not that. Well, it is but…there's letters. Dias has them and if something happens or even if it doesn't I want you to have yours and know about it." He could be selfish too, she wasn't the only one.

He couldn't listen to her just this once, could he? She let go of him at that and stood there, frozen in shock and staring at him as he turned to face her, the surprised expressing on his face quickly shifting to regret. "You…." He just had to do something like this, something to send her spinning again at the last possible second and not knowing what to do or say, torn between so many things at once.

Tria, he shouldn't have done that. He wanted to move forward and comfort her, but he wasn't sure what her reaction to that would be. "Celine, I'm–"

"_Don't._" As if she didn't know what was coming. "I'm so _tired _of hearing you say that, apologizing for things when you don't even need to." She couldn't even bring herself to be as angry with him as she wanted to now despite the volume and tone of her words because really, how could she not have expected him to have done something like that; something that she herself would have done? She should have seen this coming, she didn't know why she hadn't when she had gone through his travel bag and noticed how oddly his sweaters were folded upon themselves, folded as if they were hiding or protecting something.

He didn't know why she was saying that when she was so obviously upset with him. Lowering his head at that he stared down at her feet, not knowing what to do if he couldn't even say that and looking up at her after a few seconds and decided to act on those impulses that he felt around her so often for once.

She wanted to push him away as he came forward, absolutely terrified that he going to kiss her again, but unable to do anything but pull him to her the second he touched her. "I'm going to_ get you_ for this one day. For all of it. I swear to…" trailing off at that, she buried her face against his neck and scrabbled at his back lightly for a few seconds, trying to bring him closer before the realization that she might be hurting him came to her and she stilled her motions and just held him against her.

He couldn't do much more than nod at that, even as he did his best to ignore the odd, scratchy feeling the catheters were causing as he hugged her. She wasn't crying and he found himself thankful for that, because if she did he would as well at this point.

/////

By the time Bowman and Rena finally rounded the corner to the ceremonial chamber, they had been done moving the clay for what felt like half an hour but was probably more like five minutes knowing his sense of time. Either way Claude was ready to move again, so he stood from where he had been siting beside Dias and Precis out in the hallway and helped the pharmacist and his fiancée hide the stretcher in the ceremonial storage room as Dias and Precis supervised. He wasn't going to be sending Rena to retrieve Celine, he knew that much just by looking at her and the way she hugged him once the stretcher was hidden. Bowman would be a good choice for it, but he was going over what was in his medical bag with Precis and checking Dias' IV to make sure it hadn't been damaged somehow. Precis might just rile her up like he did earlier by saying the wrong thing. Dias would...he didn't know what would happen if he asked Dias to do it, Claude didn't think his soon to be kinda sorta brother-in-law wouldn't say 'no' to the request, but he just didn't interact with Celine most of the time. It looked like he was going to be the one to search for the mage and try to drag her back here to wait with them until Ashton had calmed himself down again. He could end up in need of some healing if he did, but he doubted it since she'd already gotten to chew him out for awhile and he figured by now she should be calming down. Maybe. It was Celine. They got along well and all, but she tended to do stuff that he just didn't understand at times. Seriously, who offers jewelry to someone saying that it has protective magics and then tells them that they had pilfered it off a dead guy a few seconds later? Stuff like that. "Guess I should go get Celine." Might as well do it now, Ashton was probably going to take a few minutes at the minimum to start making his way here and maybe being around everyone would help her get in the right frame of mind for this. This was going to suck.

Rena didn't think that would be a good idea at the moment. Anything said even slightly above normal speaking volume tended to carry in the halls of the temple and while neither she or Bowman been able to understand what had been said, they had both gathered that Celine was upset about something before they had fallen out of earshot. She hugged Claude tighter and shook her head into his shoulder. "I think we should give them a while." Rena hoped they wouldn't say anything too harsh to each other, it would be terrible feeling that type of tension between the two of them during the ritual and she just knew they would both feel _horrible_ about it afterwards, never mind how Celine would react if they had a fight like that and something did happen to Ashton.

He must have missed something. "Them?…_Wait,_ Celine's with _Ashton?_" That had to be it, they were the only two that weren't in the storage room. It was official; the mage had absolutely no reason to be angry at him anymore for leaving her alone with the heraldic swordsman earlier if she was going to voluntarily spend time with him when there was no one else around.

That made the inventor look up from the medical equipment and supplies Bowman had been pointing out and explaining to her. "Why's that such a big deal? I mean, she's probably going over the spell with him or whatever." Precis knew for fact at this point that she was being left of the loop about something, but she wouldn't bother anyone about it until after the ritual and everyone was calmed down. She had a pretty good idea what it was, even if the idea of it struck her as weird, but she wanted to hear someone admit it to her and tell her why she hadn't been let in on it. Rena and Claude playing matchmaker with the members of their group was a little creepy so far as she was concerned, but at least she would know why were doing it once she go them talking. That and she would be able to warn them about pulling the same thing with her and Leon or something. It better be Leon if they tried that on her with even if he was four years younger than her, but that probably wouldn't matter to them considering that Ashton was three years younger than Celine and look what they were doing there. Either way she'd be mad enough if they started trying to pull _that _on her, but she'd sick Bobot on them if they even thought about trying to hook her up with _Noel_.

Oh, if only he was in the dark about this like Precis was. Bowman couldn't believe it, but he was starting to envy the teenage inventor. "It's nothing," he dismissed and shook his head, unable to gesture as he wanted to considering the way he was holding the bag. Unlike Rena he was hoping that it stayed an argument; he would rather hear that than the other possibility, but he had seen the two of them butt heads enough before to know that the likelihood that they would stay that way for more than two minutes was inversely proportional to whatever other drama was going on around them at the moment. Given that and the situation Bowman was_ not_ going walk more than ten feet past the ceremonial chamber now that he'd made it here with his sanity still in one piece even if he had told Ashton he would be back for him. He was going to have to force himself to look over the kitchen before Rena or someone else went in there, if he saw one thing out of place on the table or counters he wasn't going to be eating until they were back in Tenue.

This was a waste if time so far as Dias was concerned, there was no point in holding this off and the longer they waited to begin the more reluctant they would become when the time came. "I'll get them." The sooner this was resolved the sooner he could get the damn cannula out and move as he was accustomed to. If the gods chose to smile on them he might even be able start burning those letters Ashton had given him instead of handing them out. He wouldn't even make it out into the hall, Dias knew that even as he took his first step forward, Claude would stop him and volunteer himself again to keep him from getting in the middle of something.

"No, no. I'll do it." Claude started to separate himself hurriedly from Rena as the taller swordsman began to move toward the hallway, the way his fiancée was frozen in shock making it a bit difficult until she came back to herself and almost pushed him away from her and towards the doorway. It looked like they were on the same page about this one; it was the worst idea ever, who knows what Dias might be walking in on since he wouldn't even make any noise or call out to let them know he was coming.

As if he hadn't expected that to happen. Dias halted mid-stride as the blond hurried past him, watching as the shorter man entered the hallway and disappeared from view. That had worked well enough.

/////

"_Marco!"_

That wasn't Bowman. Even if the voice that echoed through the halls hadn't given the speaker's identity away, the word would have. It took Ashton a few seconds to respond, searching his mind for what he was supposed to respond to that with as Celine dropped her arms from around him stepped back, putting some space between them. "Ah…. _Polo!"_ He barely remembered what this was; something about an explorer and a tag-like game if he remembered right. Claude really was from a different planet.

The response had been from the northwest by the sound of it, which meant they weren't in the kitchen as that was directly to the east. Celine better appreciate the head's up he had just given them, Dias wouldn't have bothered with it. _"Marco!"_

These children's games were silly, at twenty-two years old the blond should be well past using such immature means of communication. _"Claude, where are you?"_ Really, there were much better ways of doing this. He was somewhere to the south, but as they had made their way to the public entrance of the temple there wasn't much left that was in another direction. It didn't look as though she had put any marks on Ashton's back earlier, and she couldn't stop herself glancing at the area below the dragons as though scratches or welts would spontaneously appear before her eyes now that she was at an angle she could see it.

Ashton found himself turning his head to blink at the woman beside him, wondering where that exasperated tone had come from. She must be upset with him for leaving them alone earlier, that was the only thing he could think of. He almost wished he could get wound up about that too, but Claude had only been trying to help and he knew it. Not that he wasn't going to get him back somehow for their little talk on the ship to Tenue, but that was a different matter entirely so far as he was concerned. The mage must have thought that she had hurt him earlier, her gaze kept shifting between the hallway before them and the middle of his back. "I'm okay," he near whispered, partly to assure her but also to steel himself for making their way to Claude and the ceremonial chamber.

Oh, yeah, sure,_ whatever,_ Celine. He doesn't have his video games and simulations anymore, so he has to do _something _to make up for it. Making a dozen 'cell phones' and giving them to the different members of their group was one thing, but if he made anything much more advanced than that and the Federation found out about it he'd get arrested and hauled off the planet. "_West of the kitchen."_ Claude would hang out here and let them make their way over, it might calm Celine down and they would be able to straighten themselves up before they joined up with him. It had taken Ashton a couple seconds to respond and he'd sounded a little distracted when he had done it, after all.

Celine couldn't say anything to the quiet reassurances of the man standing to her side, the best she do was smile sadly at him before Claude called back and she responded. _"We'll be right there."_ She reached over at that to take her companion's arm in hers and leaned into him again. "Shall we?"

"Um," he cleared his throat nervously and nodded, feeling something in his mind shift and gently pull at it as he looked at her. It felt like...he didn't really know what it was. He had never felt _this_ before, but if he had to make a guess he would say that Gyoro and Ururun's mind were tugging on his somehow. "Yeah, let's get going."

/////

All the stress had made Bowman more talkative than normal from what Claude could gather as he led Ashton and Celine towards the ceremonial chamber. That wasn't a bad thing on its own but it sounded like he was still going over the contents of his medical bag with Precis and Ashton _definitely_ didn't need to hear that; there was the reason they had hidden the stretcher and everything else Precis had made. Claude called out to the others, announcing that he had found his quarry and began putting more force behind his step to compete against the sound of Bowman's voice as it drifted to them.

Rena had been doing her best to tune out the ongoing discussion as best she could while pacing the platform and was very grateful that Claude had done that, the knowledge of their presence nearby had quieted the pharmacist and the inventor instantaneously. She would have to remember to give him a kiss for that later, now definitely wasn't the right time. It would probably be a good idea if she didn't even look at Ashton or any of the others until they called on her, so she walked to the back of the room and sat down facing one of the far corners there before closing her eyes.

Dias stood from where he had been kneeling beside the ceremonial chair and watched Rena as she situated herself behind him. He would have preferred it if she could be out of the room entirely at this point; Bowman might have given her some sort of anxiety medication but he doubted it would be effective against his surrogate little sister's instincts, and those were far more powerful and dangerous at this point than a simple case of nerves. Shifting his gaze downward and to the other side, he watched as Bowman finally surrendered the bag to Precis before turning his attention to the doorway. It sounded as though Claude had decided to give them a countdown, his footfalls were rather heavy compared to those of Ashton and Celine. The Earthling needed to learn about subtly, he would get in far less trouble if he ever did and something told him that his companions probably weren't appreciating it.

Yeah, it was bad enough that Precis was imagining the sound of a clock ticking in the back of her head, now Claude was doing it for real. She guessed she should try to hide the bag or at put it out of the way until Ashton was sitting and couldn't see it, so she made her way across the platform to the corner opposite of Rena and placed it there. It looked like that would work okay, the bag was black and the light from the lamps they had brought didn't reach this far, so the very worst he'd see of it was the outline of it in the shadows unless he was really looking for it. The inventor was still going to stand in front of it until he turned his back and started wiggling into the chair or whatever before she moved again, though.

Bowman didn't mind the blond's dramatics; it had gotten his point across and the pharmacist trusted Claude's ability to read Anchors well enough to assume that he wasn't putting him on edge by doing it. There wasn't much point in him doing much more than turning around to face the door, he was standing in the lower level of the room and to the side of the chair which was almost exactly where he was going to be standing to cut Ashton. Using a section of the unused block of clay had been a good idea, cut and wrapped in the plastic sheath as it was it wouldn't contaminate the room, was just the right size to not cover the grooves, and would allow Claude to follow them up better than if he had tried to balance himself on the footrests of the chair. It was firm enough that he might just stand on it while cutting Ashton's arms, step off of it to do the bottom of his calves, and then hop right back on it so that the blond could switch positions with him easier.

Celine shook her head at Claude's back as he finally began to soften his footfalls and they approached the door of the ceremonial chamber. Slowing her own step, she shifted to the side and allowed Ashton to pass her, doing her best to smile at him again as he looked up at her questioningly before blinking, nodding his understanding, and continuing on. Someone needed to close the door behind them, there were crests in the back of the door that joined with those on the wall and if it was left open the spell wouldn't be triggered fully.

Ashton couldn't believe that he had forgotten about that even if it had been for only an instant. He was trying to hold on to his memory of Claude's stomping, it had given him something else to focus himself on other than the current situation and the way that Gyoro and Ururun's minds were starting to intertwine with his again. It wasn't intentional; he could feel them pushing against his mind the same way he was theirs now, but he supposed they had been this way for so long that they couldn't separate themselves like this for more than an hour. Maybe if they had tried it before and practiced this it would have lasted longer. It was that or the dragons had been right all along and they _were _slowly merging to the point that he be would be just like them and unable to filter them out the way he could now. If that was the case then they better be right about this too, otherwise he was going to make the afterlife as unpleasant as he possibly could for them until everyone else showed up and then he'd let them take over for a few hundred years. He was pretty sure most of them would like that or just not care except for Noel, Rena, and maybe Precis, but even if the three of them tried to stop them they could all sit around and argue about it. No matter what happened Bowman would have first dibs on the dragon torture, Gyoro had done enough to him over the past three years that the pharmacist could almost qualify for sainthood so far as Ashton was concerned.

Stopping a few paces past the door, Claude nodded to the others and made a mental note to cuddle with Rena for an hour or two after this was over; she was sitting in the far side of the room, hidden in the shadows with her back to them and she still looked like she needed it. Bowman, Dias, and Precis were looking past him a little oddly, almost like they were studying something, but the only thing he was aware of back there was Celine shutting the door. Turning his head at that, Claude looked behind him and found Ashton standing and staring into space right behind him, the dragons on his back tensed and wearing similar expressions. Okay, so Ashton and the demons had gone bye-bye already and they weren't even in the chair yet. Claude guessed the brunet was still paying attention to something, though, otherwise he would have crashed into his back once he stopped. "Ashton…Ashton, hey." If he had to call his name again the blond was going to start singing it at him the same way Celine had in Mars.

"Ah," Ashton started and blinked a few times before shaking his head at himself. "Sorry, ah–Yeah." He needed to get in the chair now, the longer he just stood around like this the harder it would be for everyone.

Well, at least Anchors was still there; the dragons were moving with him like they normally did as their host ascended the stairs but there was still something faraway in their gaze. "Are they trying to take you over or something?" Bowman would rather be aware of it ahead of time, if Gyoro was the one was attempting it they might need to restrain his host until he could reassert himself.

That made him stop and blink down at the pharmacist as he reached the top of the platform, wondering why in the world he was asking him that when he had been present for their mental separation. "No, um, we separated ourselves earlier for this and it's getting a little hard to keep it that way." Rena was sitting in the corner so he definitely wasn't going to mention the exact when or why of it.

Bowman appreciated it. He didn't get the rest of it, but he did appreciate the other brunet's intentional omission of exactly when he had done that. It explained how oddly they had behaved afterwards as well. "Do you need a minute to fix that or are you okay?"

Ashton's gaze lifted from the pharmacist to linger on Celine as she turned from the now closed door, an anxious expression on her face before Claude started coming forward to follow him and he looked away quickly and started making his way to the chair. "No, I don't–Let's just do this." He needed to sit down and close his eyes, it seemed like the only way he would be able to get through this without breaking down again now that he was in the room and around everyone at the same time.

Claude eyed the straps on the leg and armrests and the modifications Dias had made to them as he came to stand beside a similarly preoccupied Ashton, somewhat confused. He could have sworn the straps that restrained the thighs had been secured the same way the arm and lower leg restraints were. "Did someone undo some of the straps?"

Dias nodded once the blond looked up at him questioningly from across the depression in the platform caused by the chair. He wasn't going to announce to the room at large that he had done so while Claude was off retrieving the heraldic swordsman and the mage even if most of the room's occupants had seen him do it. Bowman's attempts at situating himself in the ceremonial chair had been far too awkward and difficult to justify keeping all of them secured. Ashton didn't need to lift his thighs when Bowman made the incisions, so there wasn't the same need for them to be tightened and buckled quickly.

Dias needed to stop being so _considerate_ of his feelings and comfort all the time, it just made him feel even more horrible about all this than he already did. Ashton knew he had to have been the one to do it, otherwise one of the others would have answered the question and Dias would have looked up from the chair to met their eyes as they stared at him.

Yeah, Dias better go back to normal after this was over, if he didn't Claude was going to start teasing Ashton about how he had apparently dumped him for their taciturn companion. He would tease Dias about it too, but not as much and only after he was officially a member of his unofficial family. Claude figured the odds of the Arlinian killing him for that would be drastically reduced if it meant making Rena a widow. "I'll go down and strap you in the rest of the way up once you're in those." He might as well, he had already spent almost two hours touching Ashton in borderline inappropriate places today, a few more minutes wouldn't kill him. At least the brunet would have pants on this time.

Ashton would say something to that, but Claude was already moving away and if he stood here for too long he might lose control of himself again. He shook his head and breathed deeply before he walked down the reclining back of the chair to its seat and crouched on the balls of his feet before he leaned back and shifted to his left, doing the best he could to insert his right arm into the armrests and their restraints without bending his elbow too much. Closing his eyes, he repeated the process with his left arm and moved his legs out from underneath him to sit in the chair and started inserting his lower legs into their restraints as he felt Claude approaching on his left. Inserting his legs into the straps wasn't too difficult even without looking, so he wasn't going to be opening them again unless Bowman told him to. Tria, he wished he could go away again right now.

"Precis, darling, can you hand me that?" Celine wasn't going to audibly identify the ritual book as she pointed at it for the young inventor, everyone in the room undoubtably realized what she was referring to. She disliked this whole thing so very, very much. Celine really was going to get him for putting her and the rest of them through this, though the mage wished that she could tell herself that she would mete out her revenge in a manner he wouldn't enjoy. He best enjoy it, she would wash her hands of him and send him off to Claude if he didn't.

Nodding at that, Precis left her corner and retrieved the book for the mage before retreating to stand beside Rena. She would have said 'yeah' or something to that, but everyone seemed to have gotten really tense the second Ashton had started getting in the chair and none of her ranting had worked earlier, so she figured she would join in this time. That and she didn't really feel like talking all that much anymore. Precis didn't really know what she was supposed to do right now, so she guessed she would just try to stick close to Rena until Bowman told her to do something.

Rena looked up as Precis leaned against the wall beside her and reached up to take the hairpin out of her hair. Leaning her head against the standing girl's legs, Rena began to toy with the clasp of her hairpin, needing something to distract her from the awful silence that seemed to fallen over everyone. She wished Precis would start rambling again, but she guessed that the inventor had finally gotten to the point that she couldn't hide her nerves anymore. Ashton better make it through this, they still had something very important to ask him and Claude didn't have any other guy friends that he had even considered for being his best man, her fiancé had always insisted that the brunet would be back in time. She didn't know what they would do if he didn't; Bowman, Ernest, Leon, and Noel were his groomsmen already, but their lives were too busy to expect them to drop everything and ask them to handle all those responsibilities, especially considering how short notice it would be now. Maybe Dias could be his best man and Mayor Regis, Alen, or her mother could give her away. Claude and Alen didn't get long very well, though, and her mother had encouraged her to ask Dias when she had hesitated, so if she declined she supposed it would have to be Mayor Regis.

Claude was trying not to think those thoughts at the moment, it was bad enough that he had finished tightening the straps already. All but one, anyway. He was going to leave the one that was supposed to hold Ashton's chest down undone; the brunet would be uncomfortable enough as it was, he didn't need to have the dragon's pressing into his back while this was happening and the shoulder straps were probably making his position uncomfortable already. Claude couldn't tell, Ashton was hiding his face behind his hair again. It probably took longer than it seemed to the blond for him to start moving away from the brunet, but nobody said anything about it and he found himself grateful for that as he ascended the steps and made his way to stand across from Dias on the platform.

Dias couldn't say much about the silence that seemed to have fallen over the room, he had been expecting it. Reaching behind his back, he removed one of the knives Claude had sharpened earlier from where it had been clipped to his belt and held it out to blond. It took a few long seconds for his movement to register, but the younger swordsman looked to him eventually and slowly took the knife by its sheathed blade and hid it in the pocket of his ever present jacket. Dias wasn't worried about Bowman, he would be using the ritual knife when he started cutting the straps. The Arlinian found himself hoping that the thick leather dulled the blade enough to render it unfit for its purpose, but even if did he had a feeling that they wouldn't be leaving this temple without melting it down or destroying it in some other manner. If by some miracle it was still intact before they left he would take it with him and do the job himself.

Precis needed to come forward so she could pull the ropes Dias had used to connect the straps and hold them in place until they were secured, so Bowman motioned her forward until she came to stand beside Claude. He supposed that was good enough. Now it was time to check on his patient one final time before this whole situation turned disturbing. "Do you want something to bite down on? I've still got plenty of gauze."

Ashton shook his head at that, not bothering to lift it and look at the pharmacist. His mouth was dry enough already, he didn't want anything in it that would just dry it up even more and he needed to start reciting the incantation the second the pharmacist placed the knife in his hand. Gyoro and Ururun were still pushing away from his mind and he did his best to focus himself on the feeling of that and force his mind away from theirs at the same time.

"Right." Bowman nodded to himself and motioned for Dias to retrieve the ceremonial knife as he came forward to stand on the clay block placed on the floor below the leg rests. The pharmacist wished this situation was different, considering his position and the way Ashton was reclined before him with his legs splayed to either side of him there would have been plenty of jokes to be made. That wasn't the only reason of course, but thinking on everything else that was wrong with this and just who the other brunet was to him, let alone the others would just distract him and he was trying to distance himself as much as he could from Anchors right now; if he didn't he wouldn't be able to do this. Taking the knife from Dias once he returned to his original position, Bowman waited until Claude moved out of the way for Precis and she and Dias kneeled on either side of Ashton, ready to tighten the remaining loose straps on his arms and legs. "Okay, I need you to lift your arms up facing inwards towards yourself. I'm going to do your right arm first, just remember to stay a relaxed as you can." At that the pharmacist took a penlight from his pocket, turned it on, inserted in into his mouth, and held it in place with his teeth before looking over his shoulder to check on Celine as the other brunet followed his instructions.

She didn't know why he had chosen then to worry about her, not when she was studiously ignoring him and everything else in the room save the blankets she had deposited in the corner created by the side of the platform as it met the wall and the lower level of the room. Celine shook her head at him; no matter what his question was the answer was a very empathic 'no' at the moment and it would be until this was over. Hugging the open book against her stomach, the mage did her best to ignore his gaze and imagined burning the book in her hands, she was certain she would feel much better knowing that no one else would ever be put through something like this again.

She wasn't crying yet, Bowman was relieved to see that. Celine wasn't normally a crier, she was too strong and prideful for that, but something told him she had been doing enough of that ever since Ashton popped up on her doorstep. Considering the circumstances, the responsibilities she had placed on herself, and the way neither of them had talked to anyone but maybe each other about this, he wouldn't be surprised if she did sometime during this. Turning his attention back to his patient, Bowman moved the straps that lay over Ashton's forearm out of the way and held his wrist with his left hand before laying the blade against the line of crests that traced the other man's ulnar artery and tried not to jump as the crests marking the incision point and on the knife flared, not nearly as bright as the mage's when their powers were called upon, but more than enough to explain the lack of lighting in the room. Taking the knife away quickly, Bowman jerked his head roughly to his left, releasing the penlight at the end of his arc; he wouldn't be needing that by the looks of it. This ritual was really starting to piss him off. He hated magic, it didn't make one bit of sense.

Ashton successfully fought off the dual urge to blink his eyes open and flinch, first at the feel of the knife against his skin, then the odd feeling of crests awakening on the _outside_ of his body, and then at the sudden loud _crack!_ and clinking noises that echoed from somewhere to his right. _"What happened?"_Bowman needed to stop doing whatever he was doing, he really didn't need to be opening his eyes while this was happening.

"Just tossed my penlight." That seemed to have gotten everyone's attention, including Rena and Celine's, though the mage was looking in his direction for a wholly different reason than the rest. Bowman tossed her a scowl over his shoulder; if she had known somehow that the crests would do that then she should have spoken up about it so he wouldn't be surprised when it happened. If that was the case then she should have known better than to leave him in the dark; she knew he couldn't stand magic, it had been one the reasons they had broken off their engagement.

"Oh." Ashton couldn't say much to that, given the pharmacist's obvious dislike of the heraldic arts and the unexpectedness of the crests activating his reaction wasn't much of a surprise. "Um, sorry. We knew they would activate but we both thought it happened after I said the spell."

Well, at least Anchors understood his reaction. Maybe it was because he wasn't technically a mage so he could relate in an odd way, it was that or it was just him being him again. Still, the other brunet's apology and explanation made it very difficult for Bowman to restrain himself from turning to Celine again and giving her a smug look. He'd do it later if she was still upset about his reaction, right after he reminded her that he had absolutely no idea that would happen and paraphrased her beau. "S'alright. Relax your arm again and nod when you're ready for me to start over."

_The pharmacist watched as the crests on the blade and Ashton's forearm started to fade, Rena turning back to face the wall as inhaled deeply and Ashton nodded. Returning the knife to its original position, Bowman ignored the crests as they glowed again and forced the tip of the blade into the other man's flesh and drew it down his forearm towards his wrist. He wasn't going to rush this one, Anchors needed at least one working hand to hold the knife. The artery had been hit, that much was obvious as he traced the incision point to its end; arterial, bright red blood pulsed out from behind the blunt edge of the knife in time with Anchor's heartbeat, the loss negligible for an instant before the fluid began surging from beneath the protective tissue above it. Bowman finished as quickly as he could at that, not wanting to waste any of it and motioning for Dias to tighten the strap as he shifted his attention to Ashton's left forearm arm._

_It hadn't been bad at first; a slight pinch as the tip of the knife pierced his skin shortly followed by his nerves screaming at him as the pharmacist cut downward and continued, but that wasn't the worst of it. The pain he could handle, he had experienced far worse than that. What made the experience so horrifying was a sudden shift in his awareness, the way he could feel and hear his blood gushing and escaping rhythmically in time with his heart and how as his heartbeat quickened, so too did his awareness of it. Ashton couldn't feel the dragons anymore, and he wasn't sure why. He hadn't gone away again, he was too aware of his body and emotions for that so he supposed it was either the spell or how focused he was on it at the moment. The straps tightening and forcing his right arm and shoulder down and back didn't register, but the sudden coolness of the stone of the armrests did for a split second before it became interlaced with warmth in odd places. That wasn't his blood; his blood was much hotter than that but he could sense the light on his right side intensifying from behind his eyelids so it must be crests on the armrest._

_Bowman would say that Anchors needed to calm down but it would be a waste of time at this point. Quickly moving the straps over the other brunet's left arm out of the way and holding onto it with his left hand, the pharmacist squinted to see past the light that emanated from the right as he pressed the edge of the knife against the crest outline with his right and forced the blade in swiftly and pulled back on it, dragging it through the flesh and tightening his grip on Ashton's arm as he gasped and jerked back out of instinct. There wasn't time for verbal warnings anymore, his patient's circulatory system pumped his blood far too effectively for that. Bowman motioned at Precis distractedly as he jumped back and off the platform to take care the incisions in his legs, glad that he didn't have to bend very far to do this. He had forgotten to tell Anchors to raise his calves for him and there wasn't any time to waste, so the pharmacist lifted the man's left leg and turned it forcefully to reveal the incision points._

_Bowman manhandling his leg managed to filter through the pain and sensations that were flooding his mind even as someone pulled on the straps and his left arm was forced down into the armrest. Ashton tried to lift his right leg so it would be in place for the pharmacist although he was unsure if he was actually doing it or not. There was too much going on now for that to register, his attention was being consumed by the overwhelming feeling of his blood pumping out his body and the way the side of his left forearm felt like it had been set on fire from the inside. Whether the pharmacist had damaged one of his nerves doing that didn't matter to him, because now the pharmacist was cutting into his left calf, deep enough that he could feel the cool metal inside him warming slowly as it stabbed into and tore through the muscles of his lower calf. Ashton was fairly certain that he tensed and screamed at that, but he couldn't hear anything past his heartbeat and the blood rushing through his ears, nor could he feel himself do it, he was too focused on the pain emanating from his left forearm and leg for something like that to register._

_Celine recoiled as best she could without moving as the sound of Bowman practically stabbing the younger brunet bounced about the room, accompanied by Ashton's chocked shriek of pain and subsequent heavy panting. Tightening her arms about herself and the book in her hands, the mage lifted her gaze from the two as a spark of magical energy caught her attention. It looked as though Rena had almost lost control herself before she reigned her powers back in, the young woman now resting her head on her knees as she hugged them and rocked back and forth almost violently. Claude, Dias, and Precis seemed to have noticed as well; the blue-haired swordsman was tensed in a way that said that he had nearly tackled his surrogate little sister from where he stood to interrupt her while his younger companions looked on in shocked concern._

"_Hey!" Bowman had caught just enough from the corner of his eye to know that the trio gathered above Ashton were distracted enough that they weren't doing their job. The pharmacist pushed the leg he was holding down into the leg rest below it quickly before turning his attention to his patients' right leg and found it lifted and turned toward him, faintly surprised that Anchors off all people was able to think ahead even with the type of prompting he had just received. "Last one," he announced to the room at large as the sound of someone above him recovering enough to pull the straps on the other side of Ashton registered faintly as he placed the blade of the knife against the bottom of his patient's calf._

_Claude winced and looked to Ashton as the pharmacist pushed the blade deeply into the muscle of the other brunet's leg, not wanting to see the blood welling and pulsing up through the deep cut Bowman had created as he moved the knife downward and released it. How Ashton managed only a whimper as the knife traveled was something the blond couldn't imagine, even if he had locked his jaw and tensed when the pharmacist gave his warning. Turning his attention to Precis, he handed her the rope connected to Ashton's leg restraints and scrambled to a standing position as she took them from him._

_Bowman straightened once he was done with the final incision and clawed at Ashton's tightly fisted right hand for a second before his intentions registered and the younger brunet opened his hand. Holding the knife by the blunt edge of the blade, the pharmacist handed it off to him and closed his hands around the other man's fist tightly for a second on the off chance that he wasn't gripping it firmly enough as he felt Celine approaching quickly from behind him. Looking up at Claude, Bowman stepped onto the clay block, grabbed the blond's outstretched hand, braced his left foot against the side of the leg rest before him and pushed up with his right foot as the younger man pulled him onto the platform. He stumbled a few steps forward from the momentum as Claude released his hand and jumped down off the platform behind him, taking a second to gather his bearings and check on Rena from the corner of his eye. Turning once he realized she was in control of herself again, the pharmacist near jogged from his position to stand behind Ashton and check his carotid pulse as Celine started reciting the spell, which sounded like nothing but gibberish to him. If the baby Nineh was carrying so much as glanced at a heraldry book or crest while he was still living he would kill them._

_Ashton and Celine better finish this up in a couple seconds, the grooves in the chair, wall of the platform, and floor were deep but Ashton's blood was traveling so quickly that they didn't have but a few more seconds. At least it seemed to be. Claude wasn't sure; the crests were growing brighter and brighter every millisecond now that Ashton was reciting the ritual with Celine and he could barely see it or the straps he was working on. Claude found himself hoping wildly that the ritual had some sort of grace period or that the crests would shut off if he was too late, the blood that flowed down to grooves in the floor was way too close to the clay for his comfort now unless that was some sort of optical illusion the light of the crests was causing._

_Celine slammed the ritual book shut as Ashton finished the last of the incantation and tossed it to the side as the ceremonial chamber came to life around them, the crests on the walls faintly glowing a dull shade of red and throbbing as they activated. She heard Rena gasp loudly over the thump of the book's landing but didn't bother to look at her, the mage was far too busy working on the straps to pay they younger woman much attention at the moment._

_Bowman didn't like this, the spell had been activated but the dragons were still just as physically there as before and acting just as removed. Ashton could be suffering from slight tachycardia already from what he could tell, but that was assuming it wasn't just stress and excitement. "Ashton, I–" Bowman stopped mid-sentence as a low thrumming noise started emanating from the room itself, the lit crests on the walls darkening, the rate of their throbbing increasing as the white crests on the ceremonial chair and floor dimmed their intensity. Looking beyond Anchors, Claude, and Celine the pharmacist leaned forward slightly and checked to see what might have caused that. The blood was clearly visible beneath the dimmed light now, though it looked as though it acquired a glow of its own as it mingled with the clay mixture. His curiosity satisfied, Bowman leaned back and looked down at the back of his patient's head. "Ashton, I need you to lift your head, look at one of us, and tell us what you're feeling." They couldn't tell if he was suffering from any mental symptoms of shock or unconscious in he wasn't responding to begin with._

_He really didn't want be looking at or speaking to anyone while this was happening, he wished Bowman hadn't specified that. Ashton opened his eyes, realizing that he was still holding the knife as he did so and released it as quickly as he could, his eyes meeting Celine's briefly as she looked up at the movement, the knife clattering against the side of the platform and the armrest. He blinked rapidly a few times before looking away from her and stared at the glowing red crests on the back on the door, trying to forget the horrified, anxious expression on her face and the way her eyes were swimming. What was he feeling? Pretty much what it looked like Celine was experiencing mixed with the sensation of his blood pumping from his body, the tingling the crests on his skin caused as they flared, soreness in his back from leaning forward so oddly to keep Gyoro and Ururun comfortable, tingling numbness in the side of his left calf and foot, and burning pain from his left arm and right leg. "One of my feet feels like it's asleep on one side. My other leg and the last arm you did feels like it's on fire."_

_It sounded like he had almost completely or completely severed one nerve and seriously damaged the other two. "It'll be okay. They'll be fixed in no time, I just hit your nerves." Bowman wasn't going to say Rena's name, the healer would start casting if he did since that was the signal they had agreed to. He needed to get on Ashton's side so he could see at least part of his face and watch his eyes, but Precis was still holding the leg strap in place for Claude and Dias was exactly where he needed to be. The pharmacist glanced over at the tall swordsman as Celine lifted the knife up to him and accepted it before passing it over Ashton's head to him. Removing his hand from the juncture of Ashton's jaw and throat, Bowman accepted the knife and sat it beside him before retuning his pointer and middle finger to the other man's carotid artery. He was definitely starting to experience tachycardia now, it was too far from his resting rate to be solely pain and stress. Leaning himself forward again he frowned down at the clay-filled depressions, trying to gauge how much of his blood volume Ashton had lost so far and unable to come up with a decent estimate. The glowing of the blood in the depressions was spreading, he could tell that plainly enough by how it was sparkling in the grooves._

"_Precis, you ca–What the hell?" Claude blinked down at the blood filled groove that emerged from beneath Ashton's foot, his hands finishing the last buckle on autopilot as he stared at the blood that was traveling down the stone groove and the glimmer that was making its way up it at an astounding pace. "Celine?"_

"_It's just the spell. It's working." The mage finished tightening her own restraints and nodded distractedly to Dias as he released his hold on the rope that had been keeping it in place. Stepping forward slightly, she reached for Ashton's hand and tried to meet his eyes and ignore the tears that streaked down his face every time he blinked. She started when her fingers touched his and found them far too cool for her liking. "His hands are cold."_

"_What? Claude stopped staring at the glowing blood at that and felt the toes of the foot before him. "She's right, your feet are too. Can you feel it?"_

_Ashton shook his head and kept staring at the door, his tears not registering past everything else. "My right hand feels a little cool, I can't feel the rest of it." He was pretty sure it was due to Bowman hitting those nerves when he cut him. His skin was starting to itch all over. It was probably the crests being pulled from his body but he wasn't going to look down to check. Gyoro and Ururun were moving again and he could feel their weight shifting on his spine and their muscles pulling on his. He hoped this wasn't hurting them. Rena sobbed from somewhere behind him and he shook his head at her, not moving his gaze from the door. "Don't cry, Rena. Please d–" Ashton tightened his jaw to cut himself off, his voice had nearly cracked and none of them needed to hear that._

_Dias turned his head the second the Nedian's name left the Elurian's mouth, trying to detect whether he needed to rush her and interrupt any spell she might be casting. Perhaps they should have informed Ashton about the healer's signal or just told him not to speak to her. It was too late for that now._

_Rena had almost jumped up and started casting at the sound of her name being called, but Ashton's voice registered too quickly for her to act on her impulses. She sniffed and dragged her hand over her eyes, shaking her head at him as she stared at the pulsing crests on the walls before her._

_Bowman was too caught up in assessing Ashton's condition to care about the dragons or the healer at the moment. "Are the tips of his fingers and toes turning blue? One of you press down on one of his nails and tell me how long it takes to go back to normal." The pharmacist shooed Precis out of the way and grabbed the ceremonial knife by the handle distractedly before crawling on all fours over to his patient's side. Ashton looked like shit, even without the crying. His lips weren't cyanotic and he hadn't broken out into a cold sweat yet, though._

"_A bit pale, but…" Celine trailed off, wiping the fingers of one hand over her face to get rid of the tears that were forming as she pressed down on Ashton's middle finger roughly for a second before pulling it away and counting mentally as Claude moved to stand between Ashton's legs. "Four seconds, it looks like." She hoped her estimates were correct, the crests on Ashton's skin were starting to shift and move before their eyes and it along with the way he suddenly began panting slightly as she counted had distracted her while she counted before she tuned it out._

_Ashton's capillaries where restricting and he was mildly hypotensive already. Bowman checked his carotid artery again, having to press on the artery with more force to feel it as he had before and not bothering to wait a few a full minute to get an actuate pulse count as he mentally tabulated the speed of his pulse and estimated it to be around one hundred and twenty now. "Ashton, we need you keep talking. Are his eyes still focused? Is he just staring blankly?" It was probably too soon for that but he still craned around the other brunet as best he could but found himself unable to get a good look at the opposite side of his face to make his own observations. He wished the chair didn't jut out of the platform the way it did._

_He didn't have anything to talk about. Well, that wasn't true, it felt like a headache was starting to form in the middle of his skull but it wasn't bad enough for him to mention it yet. Ashton lifted his head and stared at the ceiling above the door, the edges of his vision going dark as Claude leaned in towards him, trying to meet his eyes and he winced as Gyoro and Ururun whined above him and a strange pulling sensation started to tug at his back underneath the dragons. Blinking more tears away, the room, Celine, and Claude shifted suddenly and morphed into odd shapes before him as the room warped around him, that vague pulsing in the middle of his brain suddenly intensifying to a stabbing pain along with it. Ashton forced his eyes shut at that, trying to block his vision and force it back to its proper alignment._

_The panting combined with the way Ashton avoided his eyes was starting to freak him out, it was just too off from his normal behavior, even when he was being evasive. His eyes were still focused from what he could tell, but the way he had screwed his eyes shut and winced in pain was what demanded Claude's attention. "Hey, what's wrong? C'mon, Ashton, we need you tell us what's going on." He almost wanted to ask the others if it looked like the dragons were starting to glimmer to them too, but they weren't important at the moment._

"_The room moved," Ashton panted, his face contorting into a grimace as he blinked and looked over Claude and Celine's heads. There really wasn't any other way to describe it. "It feels like someone's stabbing me in the head." He was starting to floaty too, but it wasn't the same as when he was around the mage, there was something almost jerky about it, like someone was tugging on his mind while they were stabbing it but he figured that was from the room shifting on him and throwing his equilibrium off._

_Okay, now Ashton's brain wasn't getting enough blood thanks to low blood volume and pressure. "Open your eyes back up. Claude, are they focused?" Bowman needed an answer to this, along with speaking incoherently and making no movements without prompting it was the next big sign that his brain was being starved of oxygen past the point it could adapt._

_Claude studied the brunet's eyes as he blinked up at the ceiling again. "Yeah, he just won't look at us." Hint, hint. That was a clue there, Ashton. You might want to take it before I make you._

"_Ashton, stop staring at the wall and look at us." Celine waited a few short seconds for him to comply before pushing past Claude and stepping up on the clay block to hover before the sitting man. "Ashton. Look at me right now." Really, acting like a toddler was the last thing he needed to be doing at the moment, she was almost expecting him to throw a tantrum and start thrashing and screaming next._

_Ashton winced as the mage's movements caused the room and her form to start warping again, his headache increasing with it and suddenly enraged that she had done that to him. He clenched his fists and jaw and glared up at her, his tears stopping in the wake of this sudden, violent anger and he snarled and wrested his right arm against the straps weakly as the impulse to hit her took over. "Get the fuck away from me."_

"_Whoa." Precis turned from Rena to stare at Ashton as best she could despite not being able to see even the top of his head. "Is he doing that personality change thing?" Or did he just go nuts on them again? Seriously, she'd never heard Ashton use that word or tone of voice before, it almost sounded like he would have hit Celine or something if he could._

_Bowman didn't bother turning his head to look at the inventor, he was too busy trying mentally calculate which stage of shock Anchors was in now given the apparent mental confusion and agitation he was experiencing. "Yeah. Celine, get away from him and let Claude get up there." She didn't need to deal with this, Ashton wasn't the type to use such harsh language or threaten people even on his worse days but he wasn't himself anymore._

_Celine pulled her hand from Claude's grasp as he tried to coax her into moving, still engaged in a staring match with the heraldic swordsman below her. She was almost thankful that Ashton had gotten into this state of his, his actions had managed to shock and annoy her out of her own tears. "No. I'm not moving and there's not a thing he can do to make me." Really, as if she didn't know she wasn't speaking to their Ashton anymore or that he could do or say anything to hurt her when she had such knowledge._

_He struggled as best he could against the straps and Dias and Bowman's hands as they fell upon him at that, utterly incoherent in his rage as he sputtered profanities and insults at her for nearly half a minute before he collapsed backwards onto the reclining back of the stone chair, his exertions leaving him shivering from cold, his body heavy, stiff, and panting even worse than before._

_Well, at least he could look his patient in the eyes now. Bowman moved one his hands from the other brunet's shoulder and checked his pulse again, taking note of its weakness and rapidity and his clammy skin as Ashton blinked slowly up at the ceiling, shuddering as he broke into a cold sweat. "Feeling better?" Anchors really shouldn't have done that, his system was already filling up with acids generated from his body as it tried to deal with his blood loss and his exertions would only speed up their accumulation and the damage they were doing to his organs._

_It took a while for him to respond to that as he lay panting and staring up at the pharmacist, his vision slowly tunneling as his thoughts seemed to pull away from him and become hazy. "Thirsty." He was distantly aware of itching all over and the tugging on the dragons increasing as well, but he couldn't feel their spines pressing against his anymore and it almost felt like he was being slowly laid down on the stone of the chair's back._

_That might have something to do with the way they seemed to be slowly growing transparent before their eyes and the crests on his body were to slithering quickly towards the incisions in his forearms and calves. Bowman sighed deeply as he looked over Ashton's body, noting his rapid, increasingly shallow breathing, the slightly unfocused look in his eyes as he blinked slowly up at him, the pallor of his skin, the full body shiver and cold sweat he had broken out into, and the faint signs of cyanosis developing on his lips and the base of the nails on his hands. "Yeah, it's–"_

"_Tuggin' itch an' back too small." Some part of him was aware that hadn't come out right, but it was too far away for him to feel or hear now, just like Gyoro and Ururun._

_And now he was incoherent. "We're going to need to move on this soon. He's lost at least thirty-five, maybe forty or more percent of his blood now," Bowman stage whispered to Dias, Claude, and Celine, keeping his voice low to avoid exciting Rena but still be heard over Ashton's panting and the insistent thrumming coming from the walls of the chamber. If it was more than forty already he would be going unconsciousness or worse at any second. It was also the point of no return in most cases, but hopefully Rena's magics would turn that around for them. "Precis, do you have my bag?" She needed to get over here for a second so she knew what was coming._

_The inventor turned her head to look over her shoulder again at that, her arms still wrapped around Rena as she tried to comfort her. "Yep. You need somethin' from it?"_

"_Right." Claude did his best to examine Ashton with Celine blocking his view, mimicking Bowman as he spoke. "Should we start cutting his straps off, or do think he might start struggling again?"_

"_Yeah, just bring it over here real quick," the pharmacist ordered distractedly before turning his attention back to the trio gathered around him. "He might move on us if we have to pinch him or something to get him to respond, but at this point the three of us can hold him down easily enough that I don't think it matters."_

_Celine would rather not move at the moment, she was far too worried and being relegated to bystander status did not sit well with her now that they were in this situation. She held herself and stared down at the prone brunet before her, watching as the crests and demons were slowly pulled from his body and frowned when he closed his eyes sleepily and didn't blink them open again as the pharmacist finished his explanations. Leaning down slightly, Celine pinched Ashton roughly on the back of his right forearm and felt quite relieved when he jumped as much as he could, his eyes flashing open as he looked up and babbled incoherently at her. His eyes were still unfocused, but so long as he could bring himself to look in her direction she would take it as a good sign._

_Claude looked up at Celine at that, not bothering to raise his head, his eyebrows drawn down in disapproval. "You could have tried saying his name first." She needed to get out of his spot too, she could get between Ashton's legs whenever she wanted to after this was over._

_Dias shook his head and retrieved the knife he still had hidden behind his back, watching Rena to be sure that she hadn't turned around or realized what the others were talking about. That annoying thrumming that emanated from the walls seemed to be drowning their voices out, though he couldn't say that the pulsing red light of the crests had any redeeming qualities. The white light of the crests on the chair and floor were still bright enough to keep the room from being bathed in their dim light and he found himself grateful for that. Turning back to Ashton, Dias bent down and started cutting through the straps on the arm below him, trying to ignore the distant gaze of the heraldic swordsman as it fell upon him._

_The mage ignored the look the blond was sending her way, choosing instead to focus on Ashton as he looked between Claude, Bowman, and Dias before turning his attention back to her. It seemed he had straightened his priorities out again and she smiled down at him tightly. "He didn't say that."_

_Bowman looked up from Ashton and nodded. "It got him awake, that's all that matters. If he gets too bad we'll have to do more than pinch him to get him to respond. Could you step down and tell us what the clay's doing while we work? Unless he gets too bad first I want to him move as soon as these two are gone and something's going on with it." He checked the other brunet's pulse at that as Precis made her way over, calculating his rate and finding it much more rapid and difficult to feel than it had been seconds before. Shifting his attention to the teenager as she stood beside him, he motioned for her to bend down before speaking, hoping she would respond in a similarly hushed tone. "I need all the cases labeled 'dopamine,' 'epinephrine,' and 'norepinephrine,' dug out of that bag. You might as well stick close by too, we're probably going to be moving him soon." Rena's powers shouldn't force those chemicals from him, they were naturally occurring neurotransmitters that the body wouldn't recognize as foreign or harmful substances and only counter any adverse effects there were to them being introduced so quickly. That was what he was hoping, anyway. Anchors would probably be screwed if her magics did neutralize their presence somehow._

_It seemed to be taking a moment for Precis to respond to that as she gawked at Ashton, so Celine took the opportunity to respond to the pharmacist before she stepped down. "It's too late for that. If we move or have Rena heal him before the dragons' souls have been fully transferred they'll all die."_

_Precis looked up at that, tearing her eyes off Ashton and the disappearing dragons to stare at the mage. "Seriously? How do we know? Do we just leave him here until Urie and Gyoro are up and moving or something?"_

"_The crests are transferred at the same rate their souls are, so once they've fully disappeared, the crests are gone, and his blood stops glowing he'll be safe to heal." She could have sworn she had explained all of this to them the other night, perhaps the ritual had caused them to suffer from some odd form of selective amnesia._

"_That's…." Claude searched Ashton's body quickly as he stepped up on the clay block, noting his now bare chest and abdomen and trying to calculate how much longer it would take as the mage stepped down and to the side. "He might not have another minute."_

"_Precis, I need those syringes!" Bowman shook his head at the inventor as she continued to look between the mage and the heraldic swordsman and picked up the ritual knife from the stone floor and leaned down to start working on the straps below him. Maybe he should have put Dias in charge of the medical bag, if Precis kept this up he didn't know what he would do._

_Celine frowned as she turned to consider the clay. "Stop talking like that, it doesn't do one bit of good." She knew Claude was just as worried as the rest of them but she had been hoping for some optimism from him, the rest of them were certainly having enough difficulty managing it._

_Precis started at that and started to dig through the medical bag. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry, geez." Sorting through the bag quickly, she keeled down beside the pharmacist and started to remove the hard plastic cases as she came across them, looking over at him. "Am I supposed to be holding these or what?"_

_Bowman nodded distractedly at that, trying not cut into Ashton's arm as he freed it from its restraints. "I need one of the dopamine syringes now, put the rest of the cases in your pocket or something." He was going to go ahead and dose Anchors with that, if he got a full dosage of it quickly enough it would cause his veins and arteries to constrict further and artificially increase his blood pressure. With luck he wouldn't give him a stroke._

_Claude looked up from the leg strap he was cutting at that, craning his head past Dias as he worked on the abdomen restraints to look at the pharmacist. "You're not going to inject him with something already, are you? You think that's safe?"_

"_I don't know, but he needs more blood flowing to his brain and that's the only way he's going to get it right now." It would probably send more blood to the arteries he had hit as well, but the brain couldn't stay starved the way Ashton's was for more than a few minutes without incurring damage and the pharmacist didn't want to chance it. He looked up as Precis opened the dopamine case and removed one of the syringes, taking it from her quickly when she held it out to him and holding it out towards the blond. "I can't reach the port on his hand at this angle, so you or Celine need to inject him with all of it." Ashton had closed his eyes while they were distracted, so he sat the ritual knife down and pinched him roughly on the neck, growing relieved when the other brunet managed to flinch and move his head away as he mumbled and blinked sleepily up at him, his gaze distant and unfocused. The dragons' souls were off his back now by looks of it, but the crests were still slithering down his forearms and lower legs so the transfer hadn't been completed yet and they were still hanging out in his body somewhere. Bowman guessed that was what was going on, he didn't have a clue and trying to rationalize magic tended to give him a headache._

_Celine turned her attention from the blood and clay as it glowed, quivered, and rolled upon itself in strange ways and looked over to the quartet of men at those words, taking in the way the blond was hesitantly reaching for the syringe and coming forward to stand beside him. She would rather not be the one to do it, but Claude should be focusing himself on removing the straps and she wasn't certain if he knew how to make the injection. Not that she did herself, but she had witnessed Bowman insert and flush the catheters so she presumed that she had more knowledge than the youngest man. "I'll do it. Do I need to take the cap off the end and put the needle in or should I take that off first?"_

_Bowman nodded and got back to work on the straps as Claude took the syringe from him and handed it off to Celine looking very relieved. "You got it. The needle stays on. It's not long enough to go past the tubing, so go slow and put it all the way in." He was done freeing Ashton's arms and shoulder and it looked like Dias had gotten his other arm and the restraints holding the trunk of Ashton's body down, so it looked like they were waiting on Claude to finish. Celine needed to be quick about this, Anchors' was closing his eyes again and his breathing was starting to become unstable. The pharmacist wasn't going to check his pulse; his cold sweat was fading and his fingertips and lips were turning fully cyanotic, so he was certain his heartbeat was too weak and rapid at this point for his tastes. "Claude, the second we lay him down and get his feet elevated I want you to start compressing his chest." Even if he wasn't in full cardiac arrest by then the manual pumping of his heart would get his blood moving more effectively through the rest of his circulatory system. He should have brought an oxygen tank and breathing mask or a nasal cannula, maybe even a manual air pump at the very least._

"_No problem." It was a good thing CPR was a part of the Federation's mandatory training, it meant that he'd be able to do something other than sit back and watch like Celine had to. Claude shifted to Ashton's right side to give the mage room to inject the brunet in his left hand and started working on the straps on his right leg._

_Dias watched Claude and Celine work as he put the knife he had been using back in its sheath and attaching it to the back of his pants again and checked on Rena from the corner of his eye. The Nedian knew they were up to something, that much was obvious; she was doing her best to glance over her shoulder without being conspicuous about it and had uncurled herself from around her knees as she readied herself to move. He was very proud of her at the moment, but then he had always been proud of her and that strength she had despite the way he worried about her occasionally._

_It had been easy enough to tell that something was going on, the room had grown far too quiet after Ashton had stopped threatening and cursing at Celine like a drunken sailor for something not to have happened. Rena was doing her best to forget that even if it had startled her enough that her powers were no longer sparking beyond her control, she knew that hadn't been him saying those things and she was praying he wouldn't remember any of it. He was going to wake up and be himself tomorrow and they were all going to pretend that hadn't happened, she had already decided that._

_Precis stood up to put the syringe cases in her pockets as she looked to the ceiling and tried to avoid looking at Ashton again or checking out the clay, she had a feeling that she didn't want to see what was going on there. She looked over to check on Rena and nodded at her and tried to smile when she saw her glance over quickly, wishing it didn't feel so fake. Ashton better be okay after all this was over, otherwise she was gonna kick his butt._

_Celine stepped back once she withdrew the syringe and recapped the port, examining the crests as the last traces of them curled down the sides of his lower forearms and a few inches above his ankles as Claude stood back and dropped the knife he was using. Fiddling with the syringe, she recapped it and watched the blood as flowed slowly down the grooves, waiting for the glow and sparkle of it to fade. "It's almost done."_

_Bowman didn't need to be told that and doubted Dias or Claude did, but he appreciated the mage's status update all the same. He started to unwind the IV line wound around his waist at that, straightening it out as best he could and looked up to Dias and found him following his lead. "I want you to go ahead and connect to the catheter, but don't take the clamp off until I tell you to." The swordsman didn't need to be told that and he knew it, but if he didn't one of the others might think they were already starting the infusions if he didn't say anything._

_Dias nodded as Precis stepped back to get out of the way and Claude removed his jacket and folded it under his arm before laying his hands over the prone brunet's knees, waiting for the signal. Following the pharmacist's movements, Dias straightened the IV line before taking the end of it in his hands, leaning down, removing the protective caps from the catheter port and catheter extension line, ignoring the saline solution as a bead of the liquid dripped from the uncapped line. Watching Bowman's hands, Dias threaded the extension line to the port carefully before he positioned one of his hands in the pit of Ashton's arm and readied himself to lift him as the pharmacist positioned himself._

_Well aware of the men's preparations, Celine kept her eyes glued to the grooves that traveled from below Ashton's extremities as she waited for the blood to stop its shimmering. She blinked as the languid flow of the bright liquid increased suddenly, almost looking up and calling out in alarm before noticing that the blood escaping Ashton's body had returned its normal state and the glimmer of the room's magics was retreating away from the chair as the blood flowed downward. "Now!"_

"_Rena, go!" Bowman nearly shouted as he and Dias lifted and started pulling the other brunet up and out of the chair, Claude lifting Ashton's feet and following them up as the healer's magics began sparking around the man they held in their arms. Walking backward swiftly, the pharmacist looked behind him as they advanced, waiting until they were nearly to the wall before he turned back and nodded at Claude and Dias and they laid him on the stone floor. Bending over Ashton, the pharmacist released the clamp on the IV line distractedly before he lifted the arm with the line in it and checked his patient's pulse again. "Shit," he cursed abruptly as he found himself unable to locate it and placed the palm of his hand over Ashton's nose and mouth, trying to detect whether the brunet was exhaling or not as Claude and Precis moved in from the side, the blond compressing Ashton's chest as the inventor started to remove the cases she had placed in her earlier. "Precis, I need you to inject the epinephrine and norepinephrine."_

"_Uh-huh." She had already figured that out. Kneeling down, she opened the cases and and selected a syringe of epinephrine and leaned over to inject it into the cannula on Ashton's left hand as Dias shifted to the side and Rena sat before Ashton's head and placed her hands to the side of it._

_Claude didn't like that curse that Bowman had just let loose. "Is he breathing?" He'd do that for him to if he had to, at this point he would feel better about it if he was._

"_Barely. Keep going." He wasn't going to try pinching or even hitting Ashton to get him to open his eyes or respond in some other manner, if the blond compressing his chest couldn't get a reaction out of him nothing would. His blood was finally starting to enter Ashton's system, but he was going to wait a minute or two before telling Dias to release the clamp on his line. "Celine, what's the clay doing?" The way he figured it if the magic kicked out or the clay stopped doing whatever it was doing it meant Ashton had given up on them._

_She hadn't been paying attention to that, she had been frozen in place staring after them the second the men had lifted Ashton from the chair and started to moved him away from her. Turning at the pharmacist's prompting, she looked to the clay and found it glowing a hue of dark reddish-brown poked with white as it seemed to melt down somehow, quiver violently, and jerked about the depressions as if it was try to escape. "It's moving." Celine didn't have any words that would describe it succinctly, all she knew was that it was starting to turn her stomach. Really, at this point she almost wanted to rush over to the blankets and throw them over it to hide it from her sight. She probably would be if it wouldn't taint it and possibly kill the three of them._

_As long as it was doing something. "Tell us if it starts doing anything el–" Bowman stopped short as Ashton made a small keening noise, his body tensing as his head rolled to the side. Shit. "Everyone but Rena get away from him. Precis, take the syringe out. Claude, Dias, turn him on his side, it doesn't matter which one. Rena, put your hands under his head and keep going." He hoped everyone understood that, he was speaking as quickly as Precis did when she got going on something._

_Claude looked up at the pharmacist in disbelief while Precis removed the empty epinephrine syringe and tossed it away as she scooted back and Rena shifted her hands, Dias already leaning down and eyeing him in frustration when he didn't take his hands away from Ashton's chest. "What?"_

"_Do it, he's seizing!" Fuck, it better just be his synapses firing the wrong way, if not he might be having a stroke of some kind and that set it off._

_Now Celine definitely wasn't paying attention to the clay and blood mixture as it continued its odd performance, she was too busy climbing the clay block and chair to reach the others, frantically wiping at her eyes as she stumbled up the chair's back._

_The blond started at the pharmacist's words, quickly removing his hands and rolling Ashton over with Dias as he shook his head at himself, the look the taller swordsman had given him before he started moving, Ashton and the dragons, and just everything about this situation._

_Bowman stepped back as the two swordsmen rolled the other onto his side, being sure to keep his arm up to keep the transfusion going and sighing as Ashton moved from the clonic phase and into the tonic, his breaths coming in erratic, staccato bursts as his head jolted backwards, the air forced through his vocal cords creating strangled sobbing noises every time he inhaled and exhaled. The arm Ashton wasn't laying on flashed out to hit Claude across his midsection before jerking back to strike at his own jaw with a clenched fist and stayed there as it shook minutely, his other arm impeded by the weight of his own body staining to move and jerking fitfully. Ashton's body tried to roll back towards Dias and Precis suddenly, but found itself held in place by the other men, his legs tensed tightly but oddly still compared to the rest of him. Bowman shook his head as Rena reached down to pull Ashton's fist away from him face and looked over at her, trying to ignore the terrified expression on her face. "Rena, don't. Just keep healing him, holding him like that won't do anything but make him hurt himself some more. If we're lucky your powers'll end this quicker than it normally would."_

_She stared up at the pharmacist as he shook his head at her until she released Ashton's hand and shifted it back under his head. Rena looked over the others as she poured her magics into him, not wanting to see him like this and wishing this would end soon as she took in the reactions of the others. Bowman was the most together of them next to Dias, the worried gleam in the pharmacist's eyes only thing separating their stony faces. Claude was wiping at his face with the back of his forearm and looking down at the ground between him and Ashton. Precis was leaning back on her hands, her eyes huge and her face pale as her mouth worked silently. Celine...she couldn't look at Celine, the mage was stuck in place barely a foot away from the ceremonial chair, her face a mix of concern, shock, panic, and fear, forgotten trails of tears drying on her cheeks._

_All of those favors he owed Ashton were officially paid back at this point; this was way, way too much to just count for one or two of them. Claude pulled his arm away from his face as the brunet's arm bumped against his stomach, blinking as he realized the movements of it were slowing. He stared down at it until it stilled and fell limply to the floor and he looked up at Bowman, the pharmacist checking Ashton's breathing and nodding after a moment. "He's still alive?"_

_Still just barely and that was probably thanks to the transfusions, dopamine, and epinephrine in his system. "Yeah, roll him back over and start compressing his chest again. Dias, take your clamp off. You might need to stand up and hold your arm over your head like I am, I'm not sure." Bowman examined Ashton's face as he was rolled onto his back, trying to see if there was any obvious muscle weakness in his face and not finding any. "Precis, shoot him up with the norepinephrine. Celine–" He looked up finally to the mage standing before them and nodded at her, trying to be reassuring even as he blinked at the sudden vertigo he experienced and tried not sway or stumble forward. "He'll be okay. If he made it through that still breathing then he'll hang in there until we've got him stable."_

He best not be lying to her. Celine's eyebrows drew downwards as she took in the pharmacist's blinking and slight swaying. He best not be hurting himself either. "Bowman, you need to sit down."

"Nah, I'm okay." Dammit, Celine. He needed to stay hooked up for at least one more minute, otherwise they would drain Dias so much that he would go into shock too and they didn't have anyone that could donate blood to him. Bowman looked back down at Ashton, ignoring the way the others were studying him and nodding as he saw Dias' blood traveling through his line to Ashton's other arm. "How's the clay doing?"

She was going to get him later, and not in the pleasant way she was reserving for his patient. Celine turned slightly to look back down to the clay and blood filed depressions and found their contents in the process of molding themselves to human forms in a rather disturbing manner; the near liquid-like blood and clay mixture rolling over itself as thought it were in a mixer of some sort, skeletons laced with flesh and forming organs peeking out from under the darkly glowing mixture as it moved. Those dragons really were more trouble than they were worth. Celine turned her head back to consider the pharmacist, trying to quiet her stomach as it turned upon itself and wondering how in the world she could ever describe such a thing to someone. "Still...going."

"Great." Bowman had a hunch that he didn't want to look over and check for himself, Celine didn't get disturbed or disgusted easily but she definitely sounded it right now. The pharmacist decided that sitting would be a good course of action to take given the way everyone but Precis was staring at him now that the inventor was dosing Ashton with the norepinephrine, so he lowered himself to the ground slowly and sat before raising his arm above his head and resting his forearm on his skull. He might as well, Dias' transfusion seemed to be going smoothly and he was sitting.

Claude was going to keep compressing Ashton's chest and staring at the pharmacist until he disconnected himself or something, he was the one that knew what was going on with Ashton and they needed him clearheaded so he could tell them what to do and give them reports on his condition. He could do it too, he might be blond but he wasn't stupid; he could do two or more things at once. Besides, Rena was definitely with him on this one, she was all out glowering at Bowman and cutting her eyes back and forth between his face and the IV line as she took a handful of blackberries from her pocket and put them in her mouth.

Rena chewed the blackberries slowly as she returned her hand to the side of Ashton's cool face and stared the pharmacist down as he checked the heraldic swordsman's pulse and breathing. She was going to wait until he was done checking on him and then start giving him the look. That worked ninety-nine percent of the time with him, so if this was one of those rare instances that it didn't she'd jump on him along with Claude, he looked as though he was getting ready to say something as well. "Is he doing better?" the healer asked once the pharmacist took his hand away.

"A little. His pulse is palpable without too much difficulty again but still weak." Yeah, he knew he was in trouble. Bowman wasn't sure if it was him imagination or not, but it looked to him like Ashton's lips were slowly losing the blue hue they had taken on. He was still cool to the touch despite the activity of the seizure, though. "I'll stop in a minute, so stop giving me those looks. I'll even time it, see?" The pharmacist raised his other hand and made a show of checking Claude's watch.

Dias narrowed his eyes at Bowman, supposing that the pharmacist had gotten himself worried enough that he would overextend himself for the care of his patient. He wouldn't say anything; Celine, Claude, and Rena looked as though they were about to handle it themselves.

Precis had that feeling too, but she wasn't going to get in on it because if she said anything Bowman would single her out and try to start an argument with her to change the conversation and distract the others. She turned away from them and rolled the spent syringe across the stone floor to the corner Rena had spent the ritual in before facing the others again. Her curiosity was demanding that she try to get a peek at whatever the clay was doing, but Celine's tone the last time she checked on it told her that she didn't want to look.

The inventor was a very intelligent young woman, the mage certainly hadn't learned her lesson considering she was glancing back to the clay again. Bowman wouldn't be providing them with distractions for much longer and the mage would like to see the demons up and moving, she could argue with Gyoro or something similar then and it would reassure her far better than Bowman's attempt had. It didn't look as though it would take but a minute or two more, there wasn't much clay left from what she could tell and the bodies were fully muscled and gaining skin here and there now. Celine didn't bother to say anything at that, she simply made her to the steps on the side of the platform and descended them before starting towards the blankets.

Claude frowned at the pharmacist as he pumped Ashton's chest, Celine's movements drawing his attention before she descended from the platform and walked out of his view and he looked back to Bowman. "You have to have given at least a pint if not two by now, so knock it off and take it out."

Bowman was pretty sure it was more like two and a half if not three at this point. "I've got fifteen seconds left." Technically that was approaching shock territory as it was a quarter of his blood volume, but it would be low grade hypovolemic shock and he'd be over it in a day or two. That and by his estimates Ashton had given as much as a little over half of his to the dragons and considering his physical condition he might normally have a pint or two more than average when he wasn't busy bleeding out. "Precis, start setting him up for the saline solution but don't use the one that's half full."

This had gone on long enough. Rena was starting to worry about the pharmacist, the arm with watch on it was swaying slightly and he didn't seem to be noticing it. "Bowman, unhook yourself right now before I make you." She could keep healing Ashton and tackle the pharmacist at once so long as no one surprised her too badly.

It wasn't swaying. Still, between him and her talking his fifteen seconds were up, so he lowered his arm and peeled the protective tape off the catheter before pulling it out and holding it up so that it would finish draining into Anchors and ignored the drops of blood that beaded out of the hole and ran down his arm to his rolled up sleeve until Rena's powers enveloped him and healed the small wound. "There. Fifteen seconds." Just so everyone was aware that Rena hadn't intimidated him into it this time.

Bowman was such a pain, Precis hoped he didn't ask her for a lift to Linga or something once they got to the Lacour continent. "How long's it going to be before he goes back to normal? I mean, he's not all blue anymore, but he still feels cold." It was kinda weird for her to be touching Ashton so much, the worse she'd ever done is hug him once and she'd never done that again after he tensed up and started stuttering and blushing so much it looked like his head was going to pop off. That and she felt like a molester or something touching him when he didn't have a shirt on considering how much he hated girls seeing him without one, which still didn't make sense to her. It wasn't like he was a bad looking guy or anything, though Claude was still way cuter than he was.

Dias craned his head to check on Celine and the clay now that Bowman had returned to his senses and found her standing with her back to them, a pair of blankets spilling over her arms. It seemed that they would have company soon. He shifted his attention back to the prone man laying between the five of them, unable to see either of his hands but confirming for himself that his lips were indeed no longer blue, just frightfully pale. Dias supposed he wouldn't be destroying the letters until Ashton woke up again and Bowman pronounced him healthy and himself.

The mage was doing her best to ignore the dragons' actual golem bodies while still keeping an eye on them as the process finally wound down, the last of the clay folding itself over them in a thin layer and sinking into the newly created forms, completely disappearing. Celine studied their backs and sides for a few seconds, trying to determine if some new process would begin before the crests on the floor and walls began dimming. Taking that as her cue, she threw the blankets over them before kneeling down beside the depression on her right and peeling blanket back slightly over the head of whichever demon this was. She was going to have to cut their hair or do something to differentiate them from their host, she decided as she forced one of the demon's eyelids and examined the irises, different eye color wasn't nearly enough. It seemed that she had lucked into the demonic brother she was looking for going by the faintly glowing yellow of the eye as it shifted to look at her, the eyelid she was holding straining to close again. "They're done," she called up to the others behind her before letting go of the demon's eyelid and letting him close it. "Can you move?"

Outside of the fact that Celine was talking to whichever dragon it was proving that he was conscious and that Anchors was still alive–which they already knew–Bowman didn't really care about them at the moment. He grunted in acknowledgement of the mage's words and pulled the catheter out of Ashton's arm as gently as he could considering he didn't have the ritual knife anymore and the bandages and tape were keeping it secured, not worried about causing damage to the vein as he wasn't being rough with it and Rena was still healing him.

Rena looked up at that, relieved to have the dragons transferred and the room winding down. "Are they okay? Can they tell us how Ashton is?"

"Let him wake up a bit, darling." Gyoro seemed rather groggy and disoriented to her, hopefully it wasn't an indication of his host's current state. "Gyoro, I want to you move or say something right this instant, blinking doesn't count."

Gyoro did not like the stone of the depression he was curled in, it was far too cold for his comfort. He shivered and drew the blanket tighter about himself, frowning at the mage above him. "I am cold."

_Oh, well of course you are._ Celine nearly rolled her eyes at that and frowned at the demon below her. "If you get up and start moving you'll warm up."

Gyoro grunted at that and started shifting to stand, not paying any mind to the female standing beside him as he did so. Tightening the blanket around his shoulders as he stood, he tilted his head and considered Celine and the way she was looking away from him and towards the door. "Why are you looking away from me?"

This again. Really, Gyoro was starting to give her a headache and he'd only been conscious for less than a minute. "We. Have had. This. Discussion. Before." She spoke slowly and quietly to avoid the others hearing her, enunciating her words as clearly as she could while stared at the door. "Now hold the blanket from around your waist."

Gyoro tried to ignore the pang of irritation he felt at this odd behavior as he frowned at her and looked down at himself, finding his former host's lower abdomen, reproductive organs, and legs partially hidden behind the blanket, the edges of the fabric pulled away from each other slightly by his elbows due to the way he was holding it before his collar bone. He supposed that in a way they were his now, but given that this body was molded after Ashton's he should still hide it in a manner that he would approve of to avoid being punished. He shifted his grip on the blanket to the position the mage demanded, noticing as he did so that his other was not yet stirring and deciding that he would rectify that.

Celine looked back to the demon as he began to walk away from her and blinked in shock as his foot flashed out from the blanket and he kicked at his still resting brother, connecting with what she would assume was his stomach and a pained gasp issued from underneath the blanket Ururun was hidden under. Tria, she couldn't stand these dragons. "Gyoro, leave him alone!"

"_Hey!"_ Precis had seen enough of that to know what had just happened. Gyoro better not do that to Urie again or she was going kick his butt, clothes or no clothes.

Dias shook his head at the demon's behavior from beside the inventor, blinking at the room as it spun before him in the wake of his movement.

Bowman was still ignoring the dragons even if he couldn't see either of them from his position. "You okay? Claude, I think you can stop now, his heartbeat's getting strong enough that he should be fine on his own." He was going to check a few seconds after the blond stopped compressing his chest to be sure.

"Dizzy, that's all." The pharmacist had gone past that point, there wasn't any need for concern so far as Dias could tell.

Rena couldn't believe the former red dragon, he was in his new body for only a minute or two and he was already picking on his brother. "Gyoro, stop being mean to poor Ururun and come over here." The healer wasn't ever going to use _that _name for the blue dragon, she was going to boycott it for the rest of her life. Bowman hadn't told her to stop healing Ashton yet, so she wiped the sweat that forming on her brow away kept going.

"Yeah, get over here and see Ashton." Claude figured that might tug on the demon's heartstrings enough to get him to listen to one of them. Hopefully he didn't flash Rena or Precis when he got up here, the inventor would probably tattle on the dragon the second she saw Ashton up and about if he did. The blond sat back now that he was done compressing the brunet's chest and felt the arm in front of him, nodding to himself when he judged it to have warmed up a bit. Ashton was still too pale, though.

He was going to be that way until his body adjusted, the effects of the dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine wore off and his capillaries started opening back up. Bowman figured that would take another five or ten minutes and even then he would only improve to the point that he didn't look and feel like a corpse. "Tell me if it starts getting worse." Dias still had another minute to go before he would consider unhooking him.

Gyoro stepped over Ururun's still prone form, kicking his foot out behind him and connecting with his other's back as he went and ignored the hard stare the mage was giving him as he retreated from her and towards the other humans. He was not worried or intimidated by the threatening glare Precis was sending him, unlike his other he did not care much for the perky inventor and had no qualms about upsetting her. The expression on Rena's face as he approached was another matter, however. Gyoro supposed that he might need to apologize to his other once he joined them to keep the humans from telling Ashton what he had done. The demon made a mental note to attack his other in private later if the healer forced him to do such a thing. Coming to stand beside the blue-haired woman, Gyoro looked down to study his former host and frowned after a few long moments passed. "When will he awaken?"

Great, not only was the dragon a psychopath, he was useless too. "We were hoping you could tell us something about that." Bowman wasn't going to bother looking up at the demon, he had better things to do. Such as check his former host's heart rate and if it was still stable without Claude guiding it.

"Our magics have been sealed and our mental link along with it," Gyoro explained, glancing up from Ashton to see Celine helping his other to his feet before looking back to his former host and examining him again. "However, I believe I can still determine when he will awaken rather easily." Not bothering to finish speaking before he acted, the demon bent down and slapped Ashton across the face sharply, the smacking sound echoing through the room as the humans gathered around him cried out and rebuked him harshly.

_"Oh, for fuck's sake, someone get him away from here!"_ That was it, Bowman was _tired _of the dragons. Both of them, it didn't matter that Ururun hadn't done anything yet, Gyoro was enough. He turned his attention back to Ashton as Claude started dragging the demon away, almost jumping back in surprise when he noticed the other brunet blinking and staring off into space, his head tilted to the side thanks to the force of Gyoro's slap. "Ashton? Ashton, hey, look at me."

Celine had been about to rush up the steps and throttle the demon for that before Bowman began calling Ashton's name, her attention shifting in an instant as the implications of it registered. Dragging a still disoriented and pained Ururun behind her, she made her way up the steps to join the others and let go of his arm as they passed his brother and continued on to join Claude by Bowman's side.

Bowman frowned, his eyebrows turning down as Ashton turned his head to face him and blinked up at him slowly, looking not only sleepy but uncomprehending as well. Well, shit. It looked like he'd had a stroke, it was that or postictal paralysis along with postictal drowsiness and confusion but that only happened in about six percent of all cases so the chances of that were slim. Everyone but Dias and the dragons were crowding him and blocking the light from the lanterns, Bowman knew that much. "Back off, I need what light I can get." He needed to test this theory out and see if he could work out what was going on with Anchors at the moment. Taking Ashton's left hand, he lifted it up so his patient could see it and pinched the side of the man's hand within his view and tried gauge his reaction. "Can you feel this?"

He didn't know why the man beside him was holding and pinching someone else's hand above him like that and asking if he could feel it, it obviously wasn't his since he couldn't and it was so pale. His arm felt heavy as he as he reached across his body to take the proffered appendage from him, gripping it at the wrist, and he dimly realized that his own was just as pallid as the one he was now holding. This didn't make sense, it looked like his hands and arms but something told him that there had been something on them a few minutes ago and the one that he was holding felt so cold while rest of him felt feverish. Stretching the arm as far as he could across his body, he studied at as best he was able and tried to _think_, but found his mind blank, scattered and too, too full but somehow empty. He should be frightened, some distant part of him knew that, but he couldn't manage to feel anything even as he pulled the arm he held so far that his vision was dominated by the arm's bicep and he found himself overtaken by a strange knowing feeling, dimly coming to the conclusion that it _was_ his arm and dropping it abruptly, the appendage falling to rest on his chest as the cold palm loosely cupped his right shoulder. Looking back to the familiar, brown-haired man–some part of him knew him, his name started with a 'B'–he tried to say something, anything, and found himself unable to move his mouth. At least it felt like he couldn't move his mouth, or his vocal cords either for that matter and he found himself staring up at him as he shook his head and tried to find his voice.

This wasn't good. Ashton didn't need to shake his head and work his mouth at him, the pharmacist had realized that the second Ashton took his own arm and studied it like it was a foreign object. The other brunet understood his words, so he might or might not be suffering from some form of aphasia. If they were lucky his apparent mute condition was due to the paralysis that had taken over his left side and it was hopefully temporary. The pharmacist leaned over and pinched Ashton's left foot and confirmed his suspicions as the prone man failed to react before reaching for his right foot and doing the same, exhaling loudly when he jerked his foot away and flinched.

Rena wasn't going to stop healing Ashton until he stopped doing this and she didn't care what anyone said or did, she was going to make him better. "Bowman, what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know yet." He leaned back up to meet Ashton's eyes again and decided to see if he could determine how confused he was by asking him yes and no questions. "Ashton, do you know who I am?"

Ashton nodded after a brief pause, the man's face sparking his memory as it reappeared in his line of sight. It was Bowman, he was a friend. It wasn't much but it was enough at the moment. He tried working his mouth again, his side feeling tingly as though it was half asleep and waking slowly.

The pharmacist looked around him at others gathered around Ashton and motioned for Dias to lean forward into the prone man's line of vision. "Do you know who he is?" Bowman was going to have to come up with some other yes or no answers eventually, but he'd rather see if Anchors had any gaps in this part of his memory yet.

Nodding again, Ashton tried to force the blue-haired man's name from his mouth, his right hand fisting in frustration as the index finger on his left curled slightly. "D...d-d-di…Di–"

"S'okay, calm down. You're doing good." Oh, thank Tria, Anchors was starting to come around. Looking up at Claude and Celine, Bowman noted that the dragons seemed to have come forward slightly from where they had been but didn't bother to motion them forward, he would rather not deal with either of them at the moment. "I don't think it's a stroke. Rena's magic probably wouldn't be able to do this if the damage was already done, so I think his brain's just worn itself out." He motioned for the mage to lean over him and into the other brunet's view and pointed at her over his shoulder. "What about her? Do you remember her?" He better remember her, Celine had done an amazing job of keeping herself together during this and if he didn't it might be the last straw for her.

"C–Ce...Cell–in…." He wanted to get their names out but he couldn't make his mouth and vocal cords work together correctly. His mind was starting to clear finally, and with it the awareness of a very intense headache. Ashton tired not to wince as the throbbing pain of it started to register.

Close enough. "Yep, that's Celine. What about this one?" Bowman pointed over his other shoulder as Claude followed his cue and came forward.

Right, now he was starting to become insulted by the pharmacist's questions. "Claw–aud." As if he didn't know who Claude was, Bowman must be out of his mind to think he had forgotten any of them. Ashton did his best to covey his annoyance to the other brunet, making a face at him before tilting his head back and finding Rena. She needed to stop looking so worried, he was okay. "D–don' Ren–don…I-I oka." That was good enough it seemed, the Nedian was smiling down at him as she reached out with a glowing hand and ruffled his hair. She really needed to stop doing that to him for a while, she seemed to have done it a dozen times already today. He was laying on his back, he suddenly realized. Blinking at the revelation, he looked back to the trio standing to his left and focused on Celine. "Gyor–an' Urun?" They had to be somewhere. Unless the ritual had killed all of them and the dragons had gone somewhere else.

Celine nodded down at him at that and turned to motion the demons forward so that their former host could get look at them, hoping that Gyoro would behave himself now.

"They're okay." Or as okay as they could be. It looked like Anchors was getting over the confusion and paralysis quickly enough even if he couldn't form his words completely yet, so the pharmacist decided to test his theory and pinched the younger brunet on his left forearm as he looked to Dias."Start undoing your catheter, I think he's done."

Ashton grunted and frowned at the pharmacist, jerking his arm away from him as best he could. Letting his left arm slide from his chest and fall to the side, he looked back up to examine the two dragons as they approached and cringed. It could have been worse, he supposed, they could have kept his eyes color as well. Maybe if he was lucky they sounded different from him, but he doubted it. Glancing between them before he settled his gaze on Gyoro and set his jaw weakly, wondering to himself just what he was going to do to punish him once he was feeling better. Either way the demon might as well know he remembered what he had done to the pharmacist earlier, so he stared at him until the former dragon began to squirm, his brother acquiring a small smile and looking away. Ignoring the sudden feeling exhaustion that settled over him, he took a deep breath and glared up at the demon, speaking slowly and as precisely as he could at the moment. "Gyor–o...you'n tro'ble."

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Author's Note: Ashton and the dragons are very lucky to have lived through this, there are four other versions of the ritual that came before this one and they died in all of them. They were also much more dramatic and graphic than this is as I had to tone myself down tremendously to keep them alive since I didn't want this story to be a tragedy and it's dark enough already. Some of the symptoms of hypovolemic shock that he experienced are only seen in cases where blood loss is much slower than his was, but he got to experience them anyway. It's a good thing I'm not the type to have favorite characters, I'd hate to see what might have happened to him if I did and he was one of them. This is going to take a back seat to finals for a week or two, I need to start studying for them and after that I'll probably take a few days afterwards to decompress.

Author's Confession/Soapbox/PSA: Ashton's behavior during the tonic-clonic seizure (grand mal or gran mal if you're old school like that) and his postictal (a fancy way of saying 'after seizure') state are based off my own and as such are autobiographical to a degree, especially his confusion and temporary paralysis, including the difficulty speaking and the speed that it started to fade. Todd's paralysis, referred to here as postictal paralysis, is a rare postictal state that as Bowman notes only about 6% of people who have such seizures will ever experience and not normally to such a frightening degree. Lucky me, I happen to one of that 6% and experienced it exactly the same way Ashton did before I before I grew out of my seizure disorder (yes, some childhood, adolescent, and very rarely adult eplieptics can grow out of it).

Anyway, here's the important bit: If you ever see someone having seizure try to stay calm, remove any nearby objects the best you can, gently put them in the recovery position (laying on their side), place either your hands or something soft between their head and the ground if they're on a hard surface, don't put anything in their mouth and _please_ don't think of them differently or treat them like a leper afterwards–they're not possessed or contagious or anything like that and they might need your support–or expect them to know what just happened; most people will have no memory of the event and be extremely confused, tired, and/or agitated once they enter their postictal state and might need to sleep the effects off for at least a few minutes. Try to figure out if they've been diagnosed with some form of seizure disorder either by talking to them or looking through their personal affects as there are bracelets, necklaces and cards that some people carry for identification in case of such emergencies. If they have been diagnosed and have one seizure, don't call an ambulance unless they're pregnant, injured or they want you to. If they have no identification or prior knowledge of such a condition, have another one without recovering, or the seizure lasts for more than five minutes then_ call an ambulance because some seriously bad shit is probably going down._


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